Related papers: Definite four-manifolds with exotic smooth structu…
Main Theorem (3.3): Let $M$ be a compact four-dimensional manifold either with curvature, positive on complex isotropic two-planes, or self-dual of positive scalar curvature. If $\pi_1 (M)$ admits a nontrivial unitary representation, and…
Let $\Sigma$ be a closed surface, $G$ a compact Lie group, with Lie algebra $g$, $\xi \colon P \to \Sigma$ a principal $G$-bundle, let $N(\xi)$ denote the moduli space of central Yang-Mills connections on $\xi$, for suitably chosen…
We show that a closed four-manifold with $4\frac{1}{2}$-positive curvature operator of the second kind is diffeomorphic to a spherical space form. The curvature assumption is sharp as both $\mathbb{CP}^2$ and $\mathbb{S}^3 \times…
Given a closed oriented PL four-manifold $X$ and a closed surface $B$ embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities, we give a formula for the signature of an irregular dihedral cover of $X$ branched along $B$. For $X$ simply-connected,…
We construct some nonsmoothable actions of Z2 * Z2 on spin four-manifolds by using an equivariant version of Furuta' s 10/8inequality. The examples satisfy following property: any proper subgroup of Z2 * Z2 is smoothable for some smooth…
We determine projective equations of smooth complex cubic fourfolds with symplectic automorphisms by classifying 6-dimensional projective representations of Laza and Zheng's 34 groups. In particular, we determine the number of irreducible…
A smooth five-dimensional s-cobordism becomes a smooth product if stabilized by a finite number n of $S^2xS^2x[0,1]$'s. We show that for amenable fundamental groups, the minimal n is subextensive in covers, i.e., n(cover)/index(cover) has…
The geometric and algebraic properties of smooth projective varieties with 1-regular structure sheaf are well understood, and the complete classification of these varieties is a classical result. The aim of this paper is to study the next…
We discuss properties of complex algebraic orbifold groups, their characteristic varieties, and their abelian covers. In particular, we deal with the question of (quasi)-projectivity of orbifold groups. We also prove a structure theorem for…
We classify $5$-manifolds with fundamental group $\mathbb Z$ and $\pi_{2}$ a finitely generated abelian group in terms of the cup product on the second cohomology of the universal covering. The classification result is applied to study…
A proof via the Seiberg-Witten moduli space of Donaldson's theorem on smooth 4-manifolds with definite intersection forms.
We introduce a simple cut-and-paste mechanism to construct both orientable and nonorientable four-manifolds from a given initial one. This mechanism alters the fundamental group while preserving other essential topological invariants. It…
In this article, we study a class of closed connected orientable PL $4$-manifolds admitting a semi-simple crystallization and which have an infinite cyclic fundamental group. We show that the manifold in the class admits a handle…
We present a classification theorem for closed smooth spin 2-connected 7-manifolds M. This builds on the almost-smooth classification from the first author's thesis. The main additional ingredient is an extension of the Eells-Kuiper…
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…
This paper considers the problem of determining the smallest (as measured by the second Betti number) smooth negative-definite filling of a lens space. The main result is to classify those lens spaces for which the associated…
We show that if the universal cover of a closed smooth manifold admitting a metric with non-negative Ricci curvature is formal, then the manifold itself is formal. We reprove a result of Fiorenza-Kawai-L\^e-Schwachh\"ofer, that closed…
We show that there is a smooth complex projective variety, of any dimension greater than or equal to two, whose automorphism group is discrete and not finitely generated. Moreover, this variety admits infinitely many real forms which are…
In 1998, Mukherjee and Sankaran posed two problems concerning the algebraic structure of the equivariant bordism ring of smooth closed $(\mathbb{Z}_2)^k$-manifolds with only isolated fixed points. One is the property of being finitely…
We introduce a new operation, double point surgery, on immersed surfaces in a 4-manifold, and use it to construct knotted configurations of surfaces in many 4-manifolds. Taking branched covers, we produce smoothly exotic actions of Z/m x…