Related papers: Smooth Structures on $M\times\mathbb{S}^k$
We show that the group ${\Cal D}(M)$ of pseudoisotopy classes of diffeomorphisms of a manifold of dimension $\geq 5$ and of finite fundamental group is commensurable to an arithmetic group. As a result $\pi_0(\text{{\it Diff\,M}})$ is a…
For a smooth manifold $N$ denote by $E^m(N)$ the set of smooth isotopy classes of smooth embeddings $N\to\mathbb R^m$. A description of the set $E^m(S^p\times S^q)$ was known only for $p=q=0$ or for $p=0$, $m\ne q+2$ or for $2m\ge…
Given a closed, smooth 4-manifold $X$ and self-diffeomorphism $f$ that is topologically pseudo-isotopic to the identity, we study the question of whether $f$ is moreover smoothly pseudo-isotopic to the identity. If the fundamental group of…
We study how to construct explicit deformations of generic smooth maps from closed $n$--dimensional manifolds $M$ with $n \geq 2$ to the $2$--sphere $S^2$ and show that every smooth map $M \to S^2$ is homotopic to a $C^\infty$ stable map…
The main result of this paper states that a symplectic s-cobordism of elliptic 3-manifolds is diffeomorphic to a product (assuming a canonical contact structure on the boundary). Based on this theorem, we conjecture that a smooth…
We study conformal product structures on compact reducible Riemannian manifolds, and show that under a suitable technical assumption, the underlying Riemannian mani\-folds are either conformally flat, or triple products, \emph{i.e.} locally…
Given a group $G$ and a class of manifolds $\CC$ (e.g. symplectic, contact, K\"ahler etc), it is an old problem to find a manifold $M_G \in \CC$ whose fundamental group is $G$. This article refines it: for a group $G$ and a positive integer…
Given a simply connected, closed four manifold, we associate to it a simply connected, closed, spin five manifold. This leads to several consequences : the stable and unstable homotopy groups of such a four manifold is determined by its…
Given an embedded stable hypersurface in a four-dimensional symplectic manifold, we prove that it is stable isotopic to a $C^0$-close stable hypersurface with the following property: $C^\infty$-nearby hypersurfaces are generically unstable.…
Let K be a subset of a smooth manifold M. In some cases functor calculus methods lead to a homotopical formula for M minus K in terms of the subspaces M minus S, where S runs through the finite subsets of K.
For every integer $k\geq 2$, we construct infinite families of mutually nondiffeomorphic irreducible smooth structures on the topological $4$-manifolds $(2k-1)(S^2\times S^2)$ and $(2k-1)(\CP#\CPb)$, the connected sums of $2k-1$ copies of…
We formulate a conjecture that arithmetic locally symmetric manifolds have simple homotopy type, and prove it for the non-compact case. More precisely, we show that, for any symmetric space S of non-compact type without Euclidean de Rham…
For a smooth manifold M obtained as an embedding torus, A U Cx[-1,1], we consider the ordered configuration space F_k(M) of k distinct points in M. We show that there is a homotopical cubical resolution of F_k(M) defined from the…
For $M$ being a closed manifold or the Euclidean space we present a detailed proof of regularity properties of the composition of $H^s$-regular diffeomorphisms of $M$ for $s > 1/2\dim M + 1$.
We study the moduli space of rank stable based instantons over a connected sum of q copies of CP^2. For c_2=1 we give the homotopy type of the moduli space. For c_2=2 we compute the cohomology of the moduli space.
This articles is devoted to a description of the second-order differential geometry of torsion-free almost quaternionic skew-Hermitian manifolds, that is, of quaternionic skew-Hermitian manifolds $(M, Q, \omega)$. We provide a curvature…
We study two problems concerning the Stiefel manifolds $V_{n,2}$ and their products with spheres. First, we address a rigidity problem: we determine, for most values of~$n$, all self-maps of $V_{n,2}$ that are homotopic to an almost…
In [HT], two of us constructed a closed oriented 4-dimensional manifold with fundamental group $\Z$ that does not split off $S^1\times S^3$. In this note we show that this 4-manifold, and various others derived from it, do not admit smooth…
In this paper we study topological properties of stable Hamiltonian structures. In particular, we prove the following results in dimension three: The space of stable Hamiltonian structures modulo homotopy is discrete; there exist stable…
Hermitian symmetric manifolds are Hermitian manifolds which are homogeneous and such that every point has a symmetry preserving the Hermitian structure. The aim of these notes is to present an introduction to this important class of…