Related papers: A relative version of Rochlin's theorem

We obtain topological obstructions to the existence of a complete Riemannian metric with uniformly positive scalar curvature on certain (non-compact) $4$-manifolds. In particular, such a metric on the interior of a compact contractible…

We construct closed, aspherical, smooth 4-manifolds that are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic. These provide counterexamples to a smooth analog of the Borel conjecture in dimension four. Our technique is to apply the `reflection group…

The above named paper has been withdrawn. A colleague has observed a gap in the proof of isotopy invariance, which can be repaired by reducing the coefficients (which lie in (1/6)Z) of the antisymmetric kanji with chords incident with more…

We develop a complete obstruction theory for the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-index of a compact connected 4-dimensional manifold with free involution. This $\mathbb{Z}_2$-index, equal to the minimum integer $n$ for which there exists an equivariant map…

We show that for any closed nonpositively curved Riemannian 4-manifold $M$ with vanishing Euler characteristic, the Ricci curvature must degenerate somewhere. Moreover, for each point $p\in M$, either the Ricci tensor degenerates or else…

We present several structural results on closed, nonorientable, smooth $4$--manifolds, extending analogous results and machinery for the orientable case. We prove the existence of simplified broken Lefschetz fibrations and simplified…

The second H. Weyl curvature invariant of a Riemannian manifold, denoted $h_4$, is the second curvature invariant which appears in the well known tube formula of H. Weyl. It coincides with the Gauss-Bonnet integrand in dimension 4. A…

We prove that some Riemannian manifolds with boundary under an explicit integral pinching are spherical space forms. Precisely, we show that 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with totally geodesic boundary, positive scalar curvature and an…

In the 1930s, H. Hopf conjectured that a closed, even-dimensional manifold of positive sectional curvature has positive Euler characteristic. We show this under the additional assumption of an isometric $T^4$-action on the manifold,…

We prove that if a closed, smooth, simply-connected 4-manifold with a circle action admits an almost non-negatively curved sequence of invariant Riemannian metrics, then it also admits a non-negatively curved Riemannian metric invariant…

In these notes, we carefully analyze the properties of the "ramified" Seiberg-Witten equations associated with supersymmetric configurations of the Seiberg-Witten abelian gauge theory with surface operators on an oriented closed…

We note that infinitely many irreducible, closed, simply connected 4-manifolds, with prescribed signature and spin type, admit perfect Morse functions, i.e. they can be given handle decompositions without 1- and 3-handles. In particular,…

Inspired by the Ozsv\'ath-Szab\'o mixed invariant in ordinary Heegaard Floer theory, we define a mixed invariant $\Phi_{X, \mathfrak{s}}^{I}$ for closed, spin four-manifolds $(X, \mathfrak{s})$ using the cobordism maps on involutive…

In this paper, we first prove that any closed simply connected 4-manifold that admits a decomposition into two disk bundles of rank greater than 1 is diffeomorphic to one of the standard elliptic 4-manifolds: $\mathbb{S}^4$,…

These are notes on seminal work of Freed, and subsequent developments, on the curvature properties of (Sobolev Lie) groups of maps from a Riemannian manifold into a compact Lie group. We are mainly interested in critical cases which are…

We introduce the notion of a special monopole class on a four-manifold. This is used to prove restrictions on the smooth structures of Einstein manifolds. As an application we prove that there are Einstein four-manifolds which are simply…

We prove that some symetric semi-riemannian manifolds do not admit a proper domain which is divisible by the action of a discrete group of isometries. In other words, if a closed semi-riemannian manifold is locally isometric to such a…

We shall prove a new non-vanishing theorem for the stable cohomotopy Seiberg-Witten invariant of connected sums of 4-manifolds with positive first Betti number. The non-vanishing theorem enables us to find many new examples of 4-manifolds…

A version of Kirby calculus for spin and framed three-manifolds is given and is used to construct invariants of spin and framed three-manifolds in two situations. The first is ribbon *-categories which possess odd degenerate objects. This…

An oriented compact closed manifold is called inflexible if the set of mapping degrees ranging over all continuous self-maps is finite. Inflexible manifolds have become of importance in the theory of functorial semi-norms on homology.…