Related papers: Handle decomposition complexity and representation…

In this paper, we consider decompositions of closed orientable 3-manifolds with more than 3 handlebodies, where the union of intersections of handlebodies is a multibranched surface. We define stabilization operations for such…

In this paper, Problem 4.17 on R. Kirby's problem list is solved by constructing infinitely many aspherical 4-manifolds that are homology 4-spheres

In this article, we give new means of constructing and distinguishing closed exotic four-manifolds. Using Heegaard Floer homology, we define new closed four-manifold invariants that are distinct from the Seiberg--Witten and Bauer--Furuta…

We prove that the fundamental group of any integer homology 3-sphere different from the 3-sphere admits irreducible representations of its fundamental group in SL(2,C). For hyperbolic integer homology spheres this comes with the definition,…

In this paper we study isotopy classes of closed connected orientable surfaces in the standard $3$-sphere. Such a surface splits the $3$-sphere into two compact connected submanifolds, and by using their Heegaard splittings, we obtain a…

We derive an obstruction to representing a homology class of a symplectic 4-manifold by an embedded, possibly disconnected, symplectic surface.

By results of Morita, Pitsch and, more recently, Faes, it is known that any integral homology 3-sphere can be constructed as a Heegaard splitting with a gluing map an element of the fourth Johnson subgroup. In this work we prove that the…

In this paper we investigate the question of when different surgeries on a knot can produce identical manifolds. We show that given a knot in a homology sphere, unless the knot is quite special, there is a bound on the number of slopes that…

An invariant of orientable 3-manifolds is defined by taking the minimum $n$ such that a given 3-manifold embeds in the connected sum of $n$ copies of $S^2 \times S^2$, and we call this $n$ the embedding number of the 3-manifold. We give…

We explore the Fourier transform of the Heegaard Floer $d$-invariants, which is particularly well-behaved with respect to connected sum. As corollaries, we show that lens spaces are cancellable in the monoid of 3-manifolds up to integer…

We consider manifold-knot pairs $(Y,K)$ where $Y$ is a homology sphere that bounds a homology ball. We show that the minimum genus of a PL surface $\Sigma$ in a homology ball $X$ such that $\partial (X, \Sigma) = (Y, K)$ can be arbitrarily…

We use Khovanov-Rozansky gl(N) link homology to define invariants of oriented smooth 4-manifolds, as skein modules constructed from certain 4-categories with well-behaved duals. The technical heart of this construction is a proof of the…

We determine the local equivalence class of the Seiberg-Witten Floer stable homotopy type of a spin rational homology 3-sphere $Y$ embedded into a spin rational homology $S^{1} \times S^{3}$ with a positive scalar curvature metric so that…

The spaces of triangulations of a given manifold have been widely studied. The celebrated theorem of Pachner~\cite{Pachner} says that any two triangulations of a given manifold can be connected by a sequence of bistellar moves, or Pachner…

We show that the set of even positive definite lattices that arise from smooth, simply-connected 4-manifolds bounded by a fixed homology 3-sphere can depend on more than the ranks of the lattices. We provide two homology 3-spheres with…

A handlebody-knot is a handlebody embedded in the 3-sphere. We establish a uniform method to construct invariants for handlebody-links. We introduce the category $\mathcal{T}$ of handlebody-tangles and present it by generators and…

Concerns decompositions of smooth 4-manifolds as the union of two handlebodies, each with handles of index <=2 (``Heegard'' decompositions).Sample result: Two 2-complexes are (up to 2-deformation) dual spines of a Heegard decomposition of…

Let $M$ be a simple manifold, and $F$ be a component of $\partial M$ of genus two. For a slope $\gamma$ on $F$, we denote by $M(\gamma)$ the manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to $M$ along a regular neighborhood of $\gamma$ on $F$.…

Under certain homological hypotheses on a compact 4-manifold, we prove exactness of the topological surgery sequence at the stably smoothable normal invariants. The main examples are the class of finite connected sums of 4-manifolds with…

We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…