Related papers: Four-manifolds, two-complexes and the quadratic bi…

A compact oriented 4-manifold is defined to be of ``superconformal simple type'' if certain polynomials in the basic classes (constructed using the Seiberg-Witten invariants) vanish identically. We show that all known 4-manifolds of…

We compute in many classes of examples the first potentially interesting homotopy group of the space of embeddings of either an arc or a circle into a manifold $M$ of dimension $d\geq4$. In particular, if $M$ is a simply connected…

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…

We establish a braid of interlocking exact sequences containing the group of homotopy self-equivalences of a smooth or topological 4-manifold. The braid is computed for manifolds whose fundamental group is finite of odd order.

We show that any topological, closed, oriented, non-spin $4$-manifold with fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}_{4k}$ and $\min(b_2^+, b_2^-)\geq 15$, has either none or infinitely many distinct smooth structures. Furthermore, we construct…

We show a rigidity theorem for the Seiberg-Witten invariants mod 2 for families of spin 4-manifolds. A mechanism of this rigidity theorem also gives a family version of 10/8-type inequality. As an application, we prove the existence of…

We introduce a topological invariant, it a type of a graph-manifold, which takes natural values. For a 4-dimensional graph-manifold, whose type does not exceed two, it is proved that its universal cover is bi-Lipschitz equivalent to a…

For a compact $(2n+1)$-dimensional smooth manifold, let $\mu_M : B Diff_\partial (D^{2n+1}) \to B Diff (M)$ be the map that is defined by extending diffeomorphisms on an embedded disc by the identity. By a classical result of Farrell and…

A smooth, compact 4-manifold with a Riemannian metric and b^(2+) > 0 has a non-trivial, closed, self-dual 2-form. If the metric is generic, then the zero set of this form is a disjoint union of circles. On the complement of this zero set,…

Techniques of gauge theory are used to define and compute an invariant of certain diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds. The invariant vanishes for any diffeomorphism which is smoothly isotopic to the identity. As an application, we give the first…

This paper constructs numerous examples of highly connected Poincar\'{e} complexes, each homotopy equivalent to a topological manifold yet not homotopy equivalent to any smooth manifold. Furthermore, we determine the homotopy type of any…

Let $\pi$ be a group satisfying the Farrell-Jones conjecture and assume that $B\pi$ is a 4-dimensional Poincar\'e duality space. We consider topological, closed, connected manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ whose canonical map to $B\pi$…

We construct 4-dimensional Riemannian Lie groups carrying left-invariant conformal foliations with minimal leaves of codimension 2. We show that these foliations are holomorphic with respect to an (integrable) Hermitian structure which is…

One can define the complexity of a smooth 4-manifold as the minimal sum of the number of disks, strands and crossings in a Kirby diagram. Martelli proved that the number of homeomorphism classes of complexity less than n grows as $n^2$. In…

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 use a 1-parameter version of gauge theory to investigate the topology of the diffeomorphism group of 4-manifolds. A polynomial invariant, analogous to the Donaldson polynomial, is defined, and is used to show that the diffeomorphism…

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…

For a simply-connected closed manifold $X$ of $\dim X \neq 4$, the mapping class group $\pi_0(\mathrm{Diff}(X))$ is known to be finitely generated. We prove that analogous finite generation fails in dimension 4. Namely, we show that there…

We study closed, connected, spin 4-manifolds up to stabilisation by connected sums with copies of $S^2 \times S^2$. For a fixed fundamental group, there are primary, secondary and tertiary obstructions, which together with the signature…

We prove that homological stability fails for the moduli space of any simply-connected closed smooth 4-manifold in any degree of homology, unlike what happens in all dimensions $\neq 4$. We detect also the homological discrepancy between…