Related papers: An adjunction criterion in almost-complex 4-manifo…
This survey aims to provide a guide to the literature on topological 4-manifolds. Foundational theorems on 4-manifolds are stated, especially in the topological category. Precise references are given, with indications of the strategies…
One of the goals of this paper is to prove that the index of intersection of two complex curves in a two-dimensional complex manifold tangent to each other at a common boundary point is positive. This is achieved via the construction of a…
We demonstrate an obstruction to finding certain splittings of four-manifolds along sufficiently twisted circle bundles over Riemann surfaces, arising from Seiberg-Witten theory. These obstructions are used to show a non-splitting result…
This article presents a new and more elementary proof of the main Seiberg-Witten-based obstruction to the existence of Einstein metrics on smooth compact 4-manifolds. It also introduces a new smooth manifold invariant which conveniently…
We construct algorithms and topological invariants that allow us to distinguish the topological type of a surface, as well as functions and vector fields for their topological equivalence. In the first part (arXiv:2501.15657), we discused…
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…
A multisection of a 4-manifold is a decomposition into 1-handlebodies intersecting pairwise along 3-dimensional handlebodies or along a central closed surface; this generalizes the Gay-Kirby trisections. We show how to compute the twisted…
We prove a surface embedding theorem for 4-manifolds with good fundamental group in the presence of dual spheres, with no restriction on the normal bundles. The new obstruction is a Kervaire-Milnor invariant for surfaces and we give a…
We produce examples of pairwise non-diffeomorphic closed irreducible 4-manifolds with non-trivial free abelian fundamental group of rank less than three and small Euler characteristic. These exotic smooth structures become standard after…
We extend the theory of relative trisections of smooth, compact, oriented $4$-manifolds with connected boundary given by Gay and Kirby to include $4$-manifolds with an arbitrary number of boundary components. Additionally, we provide…
It is shown that there are infinitely many compact orientable smooth 4-manifolds which do not admit Einstein metrics, but nevertheless satisfy the strict Hitchin-Thorpe inequality 2 chi > 3 |tau|. The examples in question arise as…
We compute the adjoint twisted Reidemeister torsion for closed oriented hyperbolic $3$-manifolds and for hyperbolic $3$-manifolds with toroidal boundary. In our formula, we consider the manifold as obtained by doing a Dehn-filling along…
Despite spectacular advances in defining invariants for simply connected smooth and symplectic 4-dimensional manifolds and the discovery of effective surgical techniques, we still have been unable to classify simply connected smooth…
We show the intersection of a compact almost complex subvariety of dimension $4$ and a compact almost complex submanifold of codimension $2$ is a $J$-holomorphic curve. This is a generalization of positivity of intersections for…
We establish a new criterion for a compatible almost complex structure on a symplectic four-manifold to be integrable and hence K\"ahler. Our main theorem shows that the existence of three linearly independent closed J-anti-invariant…
In this paper we will introduce and develop a theory of adjunction spaces which allows the construction of non-Hausdorff topological manifolds from standard Hausdorff ones. This is done by gluing Hausdorff manifolds along homeomorphic open…
By extending a result of Kronheimer-Mrowka to the family setting, we prove a gluing formula for the family Seiberg-Witten invariant. This formula allows one to compute the invariant for a smooth family of 4-manifolds by cutting it open…
Delzant's theorem for symplectic toric manifolds says that there is a one-to-one correspondence between certain convex polytopes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and symplectic toric $2n$-manifolds, realized by the image of the moment map. I review proofs…
About a decade ago Thurston proved that a vast collection of 3-manifolds carry metrics of constant negative curvature. These manifolds are thus elements of {\em hyperbolic geometry}, as natural as Euclid's regular polyhedra. For a closed…
We prove the "Sullivan Conjecture" on the classification of 4-dimensional complete intersections up to diffeomorphism. Here an $n$-dimensional complete intersection is a smooth complex variety formed by the transverse intersection of $k$…