English
Related papers

Related papers: A 4-dimensional light bulb theorem for disks

200 papers

We present new smoothing techniques for topologically embedded surfaces in smooth 4-manifolds, which give topological isotopy to a smooth surface. As applications, we prove "topological = smooth" results in dimension 4 for certain disks and…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-08-11 Jae Choon Cha , Byeorhi Kim

For embedded 2-spheres in a 4-manifold sharing the same embedded transverse sphere homotopy implies isotopy, provided the ambient 4-manifold has no $\BZ_2$-torsion in the fundamental group. This gives a generalization of the classical light…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2020-06-30 David Gabai

David Gabai recently proved a smooth 4-dimensional "Light Bulb Theorem" in the absence of 2-torsion in the fundamental group. We extend his result to 4-manifolds with arbitrary fundamental group by showing that an invariant of Mike Freedman…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2022-02-22 Rob Schneiderman , Peter Teichner

Given a $d$-dimensional manifold $M$ and a knotted sphere $s\colon\mathbb{S}^{k-1}\hookrightarrow\partial M$ with $1\leq k\leq d$, for which there exists a framed dual sphere $G\colon\mathbb{S}^{d-k}\hookrightarrow\partial M$, we show that…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-10-08 Danica Kosanović , Peter Teichner

We prove a concordance analogue of Gabai's $4$-dimensional light bulb theorem. That is, we show that when $R$ and $R'$ are homotopically (smoothly) embedded $2$-spheres in a $4$-manifold $X^4$ where $\pi_1(X^4)$ has no $2$-torsion and one…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-03-08 Maggie Miller

In this note I present my understanding of, that is to say the way I look at, David Gabai's proof of his recent 4-Dimensional Light Bulb Theorem (4D-LBT). His construction, entirely smooth, is an ingenious amalgam of classical moves, and…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2017-09-14 Robert D. Edwards

We construct infinitely many smooth oriented 4-manifolds containing pairs of homotopic, smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are not topologically isotopic, but that are equivalent by an ambient diffeomorphism inducing the identity on homology.…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-08-07 Hannah R. Schwartz

For a 4-manifold $M$ and a knot $k\colon\mathbb{S}^1\hookrightarrow\partial M$ with dual sphere $G\colon\mathbb{S}^2\hookrightarrow\partial M$, we compute the set $\mathbb{D}(M;k)$ of smooth isotopy classes of neat embeddings…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-10-08 Danica Kosanović , Peter Teichner

We find conditions under which a non-orientable closed surface S embedded into an orientable closed 4-manifold X can be represented by a connected sum of an embedded closed surface in X and an unknotted projective plane in a 4-sphere. This…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2021-09-17 David Auckly , Rustam Sadykov

This paper addresses several isotopy problems on $4$-manifolds. First, we classify the isotopy classes of embeddings of $\Sigma$ in $\Sigma\times S^2$ that are geometrically dual to $\{\mbox{pt}\}\times S^2$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-02-03 Jianfeng Lin , Weiwei Wu , Yi Xie , Boyu Zhang

We prove a concordance version of the 4-dimensional light bulb theorem for $\pi_1$-negligible compact orientable surfaces, where there is a framed but not necessarily embedded dual sphere. That is, we show that if $F_0$ and $F_1$ are such…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2021-09-17 Michael R. Klug , Maggie Miller

We modify the proof of the disc embedding theorem for $4$-manifolds, which appeared as Theorem 5.1A in the book "Topology of 4-manifolds" by Freedman and Quinn, in order to construct geometrically dual spheres. These were claimed in the…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-12-09 Mark Powell , Arunima Ray , Peter Teichner

We show how self-referential discs in 4-manifolds lead to the construction of pairs of discs with a common geometrically dual sphere which are homotopic rel $\partial$, concordant and coincide near their boundaries, yet are not properly…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2020-11-10 David Gabai

If $\Sigma$ and $\Sigma'$ are homotopic embedded surfaces in a $4$-manifold then they may be related by a regular homotopy (at the expense of introducing double points) or by a sequence of stabilisations and destabilisations (at the expense…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2020-05-13 Oliver Singh

In this short note, for each non-zero integer n, we construct a 4-manifold containing a smoothly concordant pair of spheres with a common dual of square n but no automorphism carrying one sphere to the other. Our examples, besides showing…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2020-12-29 Hannah R. Schwartz

Let f, g be two homotopic smooth embeddings of a closed surface in a closed oriented 5-dimensional manifold. We show that if f admits a common algebraic dual 3-sphere, or if the fundamental group of the ambient space is trivial, then f and…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-03-10 Ruoyu Qiao

There are many four vertex type theorems appearing in the literature, coming in both smooth and discrete flavors. The most familiar of these is the classical theorem in differential geometry, which states that the curvature function of a…

Metric Geometry · Mathematics 2023-02-09 Wiktor Mogilski , Kyle Grant

A link in the 3-sphere is homotopically trivial, according to Milnor, if its components bound disjoint maps of disks in the 4-ball. This paper concerns the question of what spaces give rise to the same class of homotopically trivial links…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2010-10-15 Vyacheslav Krushkal

We compute in many classes of examples the first potentially interesting homotopy group of the space of embeddings of either an arc or a circle into a manifold $M$ of dimension $d\geq4$. In particular, if $M$ is a simply connected…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-10-08 Danica Kosanović

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…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2024-09-04 Daniel Kasprowski , Mark Powell , Arunima Ray , Peter Teichner
‹ Prev 1 2 3 10 Next ›