Related papers: The Nielsen realization problem for K3 surfaces
Given a smooth, oriented, simply-connected $4$-manifold $M$, the homological Nielsen realization problem asks: when does a finite group of isometries $G\leq O(H_2(M;\mathbb{Z}))$ preserving the intersection form lift isomorphically to a…
The Nielsen Realization problem asks when the group homomorphism from Diff(M) to pi_0 Diff(M) admits a section. For M a closed surface, Kerckhoff proved that a section exists over any finite subgroup, but Morita proved that if the genus is…
The cyclic Nielsen realization problem for a closed, oriented manifold asks whether any mapping class of finite order can be represented by a homeomorphism of the same order. In this article, we resolve the smooth, metric, and complex…
Given a finite subgroup G of the mapping class group of a surface S, the Nielsen realization problem asks whether G can be realized as a finite group of homeomorphisms of S. In 1983, Kerckhoff showed that for S a finite-type surface, any…
Let $M$ be a smooth $4$-manifold underlying some del Pezzo surface of degree $d \geq 6$. We consider the smooth Nielsen realization problem for $M$: which finite subgroups of $\text{Mod}(M) = \pi_0(\text{Homeo}^+(M))$ have lifts to…
For a 3-manifold M, the twist group Twist(M) is the subgroup of the mapping class group Mod(M) generated by twists about embedded 2-spheres. We study the Nielsen realization problem for subgroups of Twist(M). We prove that a nontrivial…
We demonstrate the existence of numerous non-spin 4-manifolds for which the smooth Nielsen realization problem fails; namely, there exist finite subgroups of their mapping class groups that cannot be realized by any group of…
We consider finite group-actions on 3-manifolds $\cal H_g$ obtained as the connected sum of $g$ copies of $S^2 \times S^1$, with free fundamental group $F_g$ of rank $g$. We prove that, for $g > 1$, a finite group of diffeomorphisms of…
We prove that all nontrivial finite subgroups of derived automorphisms of K3 surfaces of Picard number one have order two and give formulas for the numbers of their conjugacy classes. We also obtain a similar result for the subgroups which…
We give an answer to the Nielsen realization problem for hyper-K\"ahler manifolds in terms of the same invariant used for K3 surfaces. We determine that, for some of the known deformation types, the representation of the mapping class group…
We show the Teichm\"uller space of a non-orientable surface with marked points (considered as a Klein surface) can be identified with a subspace of the Teichm\"uller space of its orientable double cover. Also, it is well known that the…
We prove that, for a closed oriented smooth spin 4-manifold $X$ with non-zero signature, the Dehn twist about a $(+2)$- or $(-2)$-sphere in $X$ is not homotopic to any finite order diffeomorphism. In particular, we negatively answer the…
Let $ \text{Mod}(S_g)$ denote the mapping class group of the closed orientable surface $S_g$ of genus $g\geq 2$, and let $f\in \text{Mod}(S_g)$ be of finite order. We give an inductive procedure to construct an explicit hyperbolic structure…
We will show the following three theorems on the diffeomorphism and homeomorphism groups of a $K3$ surface. The first theorem is that the natural map $\pi_{0}(Diff(K3)) \to Aut(H^{2}(K3;\mathbb{Z}))$ has a section over its image. The second…
We discuss recent results and open questions on the broad theme of (Nielsen) realization problems. Beyond realizing subgroups of mapping class groups, there are many other natural instances where one can ask if a surjection from a group of…
The mapping class group $M(X)$ of a smooth manifold $X$ is the group of smooth isotopy classes of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of $X$. We prove a number of results about the mapping class groups of compact, simply-connected,…
The main goal of this paper is to give the first examples of equivariant aspherical Poincare complexes, that are not realized by group actions on closed aspherical manifolds $M$. These will also provide new counterexamples to the Nielsen…
For a based manifold (M,*), the question of whether the surjection Diff(M,*) \rightarrow \pi_0 Diff(M,*) admits a section is an example of a Nielsen realization problem. This question is related to a question about flat connections on…
We study dismantling properties of the arc, disc and sphere graphs. We prove that any finite subgroup H of the mapping class group of a surface with punctures, the handlebody group, or Out(F_n) fixes a filling (resp. simple) clique in the…
Fix a finite group $G$. We analyze the computational complexity of the problem of counting homomorphisms $\pi_1(X) \to G$, where $X$ is a topological space treated as computational input. We are especially interested in requiring $G$ to be…