Related papers: Stabilisation, scanning and handle cancellation

Let $B$ be a M\"obius band and $f:B \to \mathbb{R}$ be a Morse map taking a constant value on $\partial B$, and $\mathcal{S}(f,\partial B)$ be the group of diffeomorphisms $h$ of $B$ fixed on $\partial B$ and preserving $f$ in the sense…

One way to better understand the smooth mapping class group of the 4-sphere would be to give a list of generators in the form of explicit diffeomorphisms supported in neighborhoods of submanifolds, in analogy with Dehn twists on surfaces.…

We consider two pairs: the standard unknotted $n$-sphere in $S^{n+2}$, and the product of two $p$-spheres trivially embedded in $S^{2p+2}$, and study orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of these pairs. Pseudo-isotopy classes of such…

Let $n \geq 2$. We prove a homological stability theorem for the diffeomorphism groups of $(4n+1)$-dimensional manifolds, with respect to forming the connected sum with $(2n-1)$-connected, $(4n+1)$-dimensional manifolds that are stably…

We consider the group of isotopy classes of automorphisms of the 3-sphere that preserve a spatial graph or a handlebody-knot embedded in it. We prove that the group is finitely presented for an arbitrary spatial graph or a reducible…

Based on Morse theory for the energy functional on path spaces we develop a deformation theory for mapping spaces of spheres into orthogonal groups. This is used to show that these mapping spaces are weakly homotopy equivalent, in a stable…

The existence of a model structure on the category $\mathcal{D}$ of diffeological spaces is crucial to developing smooth homotopy theory. We construct a compactly generated model structure on the category $\mathcal{D}$ whose weak…

Replacing configurations of points by configurations of tubular neighbourhoods (or discs) in a manifold, we are able to define a natural scanning map that is equivariant under the action of the diffeomorphism group of the manifold. We also…

We prove that in dimensions not equal to 4, 5, or 7, the homology and homotopy groups of the classifying space of the topological group of diffeomorphisms of a disk fixing the boundary are finitely generated in each degree. The proof uses…

We prove a localization theorem for exotic diffeomorphisms, showing that every diffeomorphism of a compact simply-connected 4-manifold that is isotopic to the identity after stabilizing with one copy of $S^2 \times S^2$, is smoothly…

The stable Andrews-Curtis conjecture in combinatorial group theory is the statement that every balanced presentation of the trivial group can be simplified to the trivial form by elementary moves corresponding to "handle-slides" together…

For a given smooth $2$-knot in $S^4$, we relate the existence of a smooth Seifert hypersurface of a certain class to the existence of irreducible $ SU(2)$-representations of its knot group. For example, we see that any smooth $2$-knot…

We prove that if two closed, connected, regular cosymplectic manifolds have isomorphic groups of cosymplectomorphisms (as topological groups), then the underlying manifolds are diffeomorphic. The proof proceeds by characterizing the Reeb…

We construct Bott-type and equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer homology and cohomology for 3-manifolds, in particular rational homology spheres, and prove their diffeomorphism invariance. This paper is a revised version of math.DG/9701010.…

We show that link concordance implies link homotopy for immersions of codimension at least two. As a consequence, we prove that every link $\sqcup^r S^n \hookrightarrow S^{n+2}$ is link homotopically trivial for $n\geq 2$, that is, there is…

Lens spaces are the only 3-manifolds that admit gradient-like flows with four fixed points. This is an immediate corollary of Morse inequality and of the Morse function with four critical points existence. A similar question for…

We prove that the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the 2-sphere admits a non-trivial homogeneous quasimorphism to the real numbers with the following property. Its value on any diffeomorphism supported in a sufficiently small…

In this paper we study $\mathcal M(X)$, the set of diffeomorphism classes of smooth manifolds with the simple homotopy type of $X$, via a map $\Psi$ from $\mathcal M(X)$ into the quotient of $K(X)=[X,BSO]$ by the action of the group of…

The homology groups of the automorphism group of a free group are known to stabilize as the number of generators of the free group goes to infinity, and this paper relativizes this result to a family of groups that can be defined in terms…

Let $D_{n,\gamma}$ be the complex of graphs on $n$ vertices and domination number at least $\gamma$. We prove that $D_{n,n-2}$ has the homotopy type of a finite wedge of 2-spheres. This is done by using discrete Morse theory techniques.…