Related papers: On the mapping class groups of simply-connected sm…

Kreck proved that two $2q$-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic if and only if they admit normally bordant normal $(q-1)$-smoothings over the same normal $(q-1)$-type $(B,\xi)$. We show that stable diffeomorphism can be replaced by…

Let $M$ be a closed, oriented, smooth $4-$manifold with intersection form $\Gamma$, $A(\Gamma)$ the automorphism group of $\Gamma$ and $D(M)$ the subgroup induced by orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of $M$. In this note we study the…

For a compact smooth manifold $M$ (with boundary) we prove that the topological rank of the diffeomorphism group Diff$_0^k(M)$ is finite for all $k\geq 1$. This extends a result from [2] where the same claim is proved in the special case of…

Despite spectacular advances in defining invariants for simply connected smooth and symplectic 4-dimensional manifolds and the discovery of effective surgical techniques, we still have been unable to classify simply connected smooth…

We give constraints on smooth families of 4-manifolds with boundary using Manolescu's Seiberg-Witten Floer stable homotopy type, provided that the fiberwise restrictions of the families to the boundaries are trivial families of 3-manifolds.…

We prove that, for a closed oriented smooth spin 4-manifold $X$ with non-zero signature, the Dehn twist about a $(+2)$- or $(-2)$-sphere in $X$ is not homotopic to any finite order diffeomorphism. In particular, we negatively answer the…

We show that for any connected smooth manifold $M$ of dimension different from $3$ the restriction of the compact-open topology to the diffeomorphism group of $M$ is minimal, i.e. the group does not admit a strictly coarser Hausdorff group…

We obtain constraints on the topology of families of smooth $4$-manifolds arising from a finite dimensional approximation of the families Seiberg-Witten monopole map. Amongst other results these constraints include a families generalisation…

This note serves to record examples of diffeomorphisms of closed smooth $4$-manifolds $X$ that are homotopic but not pseudoisotopic to the identity, and to explain why there are no such examples when $X$ is orientable and its fundamental…

Let $M^{2n}$ denote a closed $(n-1)$-connected smoothable topological $2n$-manifold. We show that the group $\mathcal{C}(M^{2n})$ of concordance classes of smoothings of $M^{2n}$ is isomorphic to the group of smooth homotopy spheres…

Let $X$ be a compact orientable non-Haken 3-manifold modeled on the Thurston geometry $\text{Nil}$. We show that the diffeomorphism group $\text{Diff}(X)$ deformation retracts to the isometry group $\text{Isom}(X)$. Combining this with…

Let $G$ be a Lie group and let $M$ be a proper smooth $G$-manifold. If $M$ is connected and $\dim(M)\geq 2$, the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$, that are isotopic to the identity through a compactly supported isotopy, acts $n$-transitively…

Monodromy in analytic families of smooth complex surfaces yields groups of isotopy classes of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms for each family member X. For all deformation classes of minimal elliptic surfaces with p_g>q=0, we…

This note has two related but independent parts. Firstly, we prove a generalisation of a recent result of Gay on the smooth mapping class group of $S^4$. Secondly, we give an alternative proof of a consequence of work of Saeki, namely that…

Here $\underline{M}$ denotes a pair $(M,A)$ of a manifold and a subset (e.g. $A=\partial M$ or $A=\emptyset$). We construct for each $\underline{M}$ its motion groupoid $\mathrm{Mot}_{\underline{M}}$, whose object set is the power set $…

We exhibit a finitely generated group $\M$ whose rational homology is isomorphic to the rational stable homology of the mapping class group. It is defined as a mapping class group associated to a surface $\su$ of infinite genus, and…

We study the action of the mapping class group M(F) on the complex of curves of a non-orientable surface F. We obtain, by using a result of K. S. Brown, a presentation for M(F) defined in terms of the mapping class groups of the…

This paper studies the set of finite groups appearing as $\pi_1(M)/\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$, where $M$ is a closed, orientable 3-manifold and $\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$ denotes the $n$-th term of the derived series of $\pi_1(M)$. Our main result is that if…

Kreck and Schafer produced the first examples of stably diffeomorphic closed smooth 4-manifolds which are not homotopy equivalent. They were constructed by applying the doubling construction to 2-complexes over certain finite abelian groups…

We prove the following result: Let $(X,g_0)$ be a complete, connected 4-manifold with uniformly positive isotropic curvature and with bounded geometry. Then there is a finite collection $\mathcal{F}$ of manifolds of the form $\mathbb{S}^3…