Related papers: On the high-dimensional geography problem

The main result is a classification of smooth actions of $SL(n,{\bf R})$, $n \geq 3$, or connected groups locally isomorphic to it, on closed $n$-manifolds, extending a theorem of Uchida. We construct new exotic actions of $SL(n,{\bf Z})$…

By work of Kirby-Siebenmann \cite{KirbySiebenmann} and Kervaire-Milnor \cite{KervaireMilnor}, there are only finitely many smooth manifolds homeomorphic to a given closed topological manifold. A construction involving Whitehead torsion…

The fact that the complete graph $K_5$ does not embed in the plane has been generalized in two independent directions. On the one hand, the solution of the classical Heawood problem for graphs on surfaces established that the complete graph…

We introduce a method to detect exotic surfaces without explicitly using a smooth 4-manifold invariant or an invariant of a 4-manifold-surface pair in the construction. Our main tools are two versions of families (Seiberg-Witten)…

In 1940s Steenrod asked if every homology class $z\in H_n(X,\mathbb{Z})$ of every topological space $X$ can be realised by an image of the fundamental class of an oriented closed smooth manifold. Thom found a non-realisable 7-dimensional…

The present paper finds new necessary and sufficient conditions for $6$-dimensional closed and simply-connected manifolds of certain classes to admit special generic maps into certain Euclidean spaces. The class of special generic maps…

When two smooth manifold bundles over the same base are fiberwise tangentially homeomorphic, the difference is measured by a homology class in the total space of the bundle. We call this the relative smooth structure class. Rationally and…

We analyze the possibility of defining infinite-dimensional manifolds as ringed spaces. More precisely, we consider three definitions of manifolds modeled on locally convex spaces: in terms of charts and atlases, in terms of ringed spaces,…

We develop a method for constructing standard complexes which turns easy the calculation of their algebraic invariants and, as well, the precise evaluation of whether these complexes are embeddable or not in a 3-manifold. This method…

We classify orbifold geometries which can be interpreted as moduli spaces of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}\geq 3$ superconformal field theories up to rank 2 (complex dimension 6). The large majority of the geometries we find correspond to…

We calculate the Seiberg-Witten invariants of branched covers of prime degree, where the branch locus consists of embedded spheres. Aside from the formula itself, our calculations give rise to some new constraints on configurations of…

By use of a variety of techniques (most based on constructions of quasipositive knots and links, some old and others new), many smooth 3-manifolds are realized as transverse intersections of complex surfaces in complex 3-space with strictly…

We exhibit the first examples of closed 7-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with holonomy G_2 that are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic. These are also the first examples of closed Ricci-flat manifolds that are homeomorphic but not…

In a recent paper, we obtained a WDVV-type relation for real genus 0 Gromov-Witten invariants with conjugate pairs of insertions; it specializes to a complete recursion in the case of odd-dimensional projective spaces. This note provides…

We prove some contact analogs of smooth embedding theorems for closed $\pi$-manifolds. We show that a closed, $k$-connected, $\pi$-manifold of dimension (2n + 1) that bounds a $\pi$-manifold, contact embeds in the $(4n-2k+3)$-dimensional…

Given a general plane curve Y of degree d, we compute the number n_d of irreducible plane conics that are 5-fold tangent to Y. This problem has been studied before by Vainsencher using classical methods, but it could not be solved there…

We compute the homotopy type of the space of embeddings of convex disks with Legendrian boundary into a tight contact $3$-manifold, whenever the sum of the absolute value of the rotation number of the boundary with the Thurston-Bennequin…

We prove that the stable moduli space of $(n-1)$-connected, $n$-parallelizable, $(2n+1)$-dimensional manifolds is homology equivalent to an infinite loopspace for $n \geq 4, n \neq 7$. The main novel ingredient is a version of the cobordism…

We determine when an exotic sphere $\Sigma$ of dimension $d\not \equiv 1 (4)$ can be detected through the homotopy type of its truncated Disc-presheaf. The latter records the diagram of framed configuration spaces of bounded cardinality in…

Wall's finiteness obstruction is an algebraic K-theory invariant which decides if a finitely dominated space is homotopy equivalent to a finite CW complex. The object of this survey is to describe the invariant (which was first formulated…