Related papers: Corks and exotic ribbons in $B^{4}$

We discuss differences between genera of smooth and locally-flat non-orientable surfaces in the 4-ball with boundary a given torus knot or 2-bridge knot. In particular, we establish that a result by Batson on the smooth non-orientable…

A simple characterization is given of open subsets of a complex surface that smoothly perturb to Stein open subsets. As applications, complex 2-space C^2 contains domains of holomorphy (Stein open subsets) that are exotic R^4's, and others…

We construct infinitely many smoothly slice knots having topological slice discs that are non-approximable by smooth slice discs.

We develop obstructions to a knot K in the 3-sphere bounding a smooth punctured Klein bottle in the 4-ball. The simplest of these is based on the linking form of the 2-fold branched cover of the 3-sphere branched over K. Stronger…

In this paper, we investigate the possibility of constructing isomonodromic deformations of logarithmic connections on curves by using ramified covers. We give new examples and prove a classification result.

Kawauchi proved that every strongly negative amphichiral knot $K \subset S^3$ bounds a smoothly embedded disk in some rational homology ball $V_K$, whose construction a priori depends on $K$. We show that $V_K$ is independent of $K$ up to…

Dispersion relations govern wave behaviors, and tailoring them is a grand challenge in wave manipulation. We demonstrate inverse design of phononic dispersion using non-local interactions on one-dimensional spring-mass chains. For both…

We construct smooth 4-manifolds homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to CP^2+6CP^2-bar.

The core group is an invariant of unoriented virtual links. We introduce a peripheral structure for the core group, in which the longitudes are sensitive to orientations. We show that the combination of the core group and its peripheral…

We explore several notions of $k$-form at a point in a diffeological space, construct bundles of such $k$-forms, and compare sections of these bundles to differential forms. As they are defined locally, our $k$-forms can contain more…

It is well-known that all 2-knots are slice. Are all 2-links slice? This is an outstanding open question. In this paper we prove the following: For any 2-component 2-link (J,K)in the 4-sphere which bounds the 5-ball B^5, there is an…

We study symplectic structures on four-dimensional small covers. Our main result shows that every symplectic four-dimensional small cover is aspherical. We then classify symplectic small covers over products of two polygons, proving that…

We define an operation on homology ${B}^4$ which we call an $n$-twist annulus modification. We give a new construction of smoothly slice knots and exotically slice knots via $n$-twist annulus modifications. As an application, we present a…

Rational curves on Hilbert schemes of points on $K3$ surfaces and generalised Kummer manifolds are constructed by using Brill-Noether theory on nodal curves on the underlying surface. It turns out that all wall divisors can be obtained, up…

We prove the uniqueness, up to diffeomorphism, of symplectically aspherical fillings of the unit cotangent bundle of odd-dimensional spheres. As applications, we first show the non-existence of exact symplectic cobordisms between some…

We list up all the candidates for the real isotopy types of real anti-bicanonical curves with one real nondegenerate double point on the 4-th real Hirzebruch surface RF_4 by enumerating the connected components of the moduli space of real…

Biracks are algebraic structures related to knots and links. We define a new enhancement of the birack counting invariant for oriented classical and virtual knots and links via algebraic structures called birack dynamical cocycles. The new…

We consider the asymmetric orbifold that is obtained by acting with T-duality on a 4-torus, together with a shift along an extra circle. The chiral algebra of the resulting theory has non-trivial outer automorphisms that act as permutations…

Let $K\subset S^3$ be a Fox $p$-colored knot and assume $K$ bounds a locally flat surface $S\subset B^4$ over which the given $p$-coloring extends. This coloring of $S$ induces a dihedral branched cover $X\to S^4$. Its branching set is a…

In this article we show that in any dimension there exist infinitely many pairs of formally contact isotopic isocontact embeddings into the standard contact sphere which are not contact isotopic. This is the first example of rigidity for…