Related papers: Toric multisections and curves in rational surface…

We develop a purely combinatorial framework for the systematic enumeration of knot and link diagrams supported on the thickened torus $T^2\times I$. Using the theory of maps on surfaces, cellular $4$--regular torus projections are encoded…

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…

We discuss an obstruction to a knot being smoothly slice that comes from minimum-genus bounds on smoothly embedded surfaces in definite 4-manifolds. As an example, we provide an alternate proof of the fact that the (2,1)-cable of the figure…

We express the total space of a principal circle bundle over a connected sum of two manifolds in terms of the total spaces of circle bundles over each summand, provided certain conditions hold. We then apply this result to provide…

For suitable finite groups G, we construct contractible 4-manifolds C with an effective G-action on $\partial C$ whose associated pairs (C,g) for all $g \in G$ are distinct smoothings of the pair $(C,\partial C)$. Indeed C embeds in a…

In this paper, we regard the smooth quadric threefold $Q_{3}$ as Lagrangian Grassmannian and search for fixed rational curves of low degree in $Q_{3}$ with respect to a torus action, which is the maximal subgroup of the special linear group…

We show that any 4-manifold admitting a $(g;k_1,k_2,0)$-trisection is an irregular 3-fold cover of the 4-sphere whose branching set is a surface in $S^4$, smoothly embedded except for one singular point which is the cone on a link. A…

A fundamental idea in toric topology is that classes of manifolds with well-behaved torus actions (simply, toric spaces) are classified by pairs of simplicial complexes and (non-singular) characteristic maps. The authors in their previous…

We show that there exists an algorithm that takes as input two closed, simply connected, topological 4-manifolds and decides whether or not these 4-manifolds are homeomorphic. In particular, we explain in detail how closed, simply…

Some generalizations and variations of the Fintushel-Stern rim surgery are known to produce smoothly knotted surfaces. We show that if the fundamental groups of their complements are cyclic, then these surfaces are topologically unknotted.…

For every Sol manifold $M$, we determine the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Thurston norm of every element in $H_2(M;\mathbb{Z}_2)$. Each Sol manifold is either a torus bundle over the circle or a torus semi-bundle, thus corresponds to a torus map. We…

Let $(Y,A)$ be a smooth rational surface or a possibly singular toric surface with ample divisor $A$. We show that a family of ECH-based, algebro-geometric invariants $c^{\text{alg}}_k(Y,A)$ proposed by Wormleighton obstruct symplectic…

We showed in another paper [arXiv:1103.1759] that every connected graph can be realized as the cut locus of some point on some riemannian surface $S$. Here, criteria for the orientability of $S$ are given, and are applied to classify the…

A quasitoric manifold is a smooth 2n-manifold M^{2n} with an action of the compact torus T^n such that the action is locally isomorphic to the standard action of T^n on C^n and the orbit space is diffeomorphic, as manifold with corners, to…

We demonstrate that the geometric, topological, and combinatorial complexities of certain surfaces in $\mathbb{CP}^2$ are closely related: We prove that a positive genus surface $\mathcal{K}$ in $\mathbb{CP}^2$ that minimizes genus in its…

We classify linearly normal surfaces $S \subset \mathbf{P}^{r+1}$ of degree $d$ such that $4g-4 \leq d \leq 4g+4$, where $g>1$ is the sectional genus (it is a classical result that for larger $d$ there are only cones). We apply this to the…

We consider the subspace of the homology of a covering space spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. Our main result is the existence of unbranched covers of surfaces where this is a proper subspace. More generally, for a fixed finite…

In the author's earlier work there appeared a new way to specify any smooth closed 4-manifold by a surface diagram, which consists of an orientable surface decorated with simple closed curves. These curves are cyclically indexed, and each…

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 paper surveys some new results and open problems connected with such fundamental combinatorial concepts as polytopes, simplicial complexes, cubical complexes, and subspace arrangements. Particular attention is paid to the case of…