Related papers: Aspherical 4-manifolds with elementary amenable fu…
We show that for a Lie group $G=\R^{n}\ltimes_{\phi} \R^{m}$ with a semisimple action $\phi$ which has a cocompact discrete subgroup $\Gamma$, the solvmanifold $G/\Gamma$ admits a canonical invariant formal (i.e. all products of harmonic…
In this article, we investigate the geometry of compact quasi-Einstein manifolds with boundary. We show that a $3$-dimensional simply connected compact quasi-Einstein manifold with boundary and constant scalar curvature is isometric, up to…
We show that extended graph 4-manifolds with positive Euler characteristic cannot support a complex structure. This result stems from a new proof of the fact that a closed real-hyperbolic 4-manifold cannot support a complex structure.…
In this note, we address the following question: Which 1-formal groups occur as fundamental groups of both quasi-K\"ahler manifolds and closed, connected, orientable 3-manifolds. We classify all such groups, at the level of Malcev…
We point out that a 4-dimensional topological manifold with an Alexandrov metric (of curvature bounded below) and with an effective, isometric action of the circle or the 2-torus is locally smooth. This observation implies that the…
We give a new proof that compact infra-solvmanifolds with isomorphic fundamental groups are smoothly diffeomorphic. More generally, we prove rigidity results for manifolds which are constructed using affine actions of virtually polycyclic…
These notes, which are based on three lectures delivered at the summer school "Topological 4-manifolds" at CRM in 2025, discuss classifications of locally flat spheres in closed, simply-connected $4$-manifolds, with a focus on the case…
We construct an invariant of closed ${\rm spin}^c$ 4-manifolds using families of Seiberg-Witten equations. This invariant is formulated as a cohomology class on a certain abstract simplicial complex consisting of embedded surfaces of a…
We construct compact hyperbolic 3-manifolds with totally geodesic boundary, such that the closed 3-pseudomanifolds obtained by coning off the boundary components are negatively curved and contain locally convex subspaces whose fundamental…
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…
Given a 4-manifold with a homologically trivial and locally-linear cyclic group action, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of equivariant bundles. The conditions are derived from the twisted signature formula…
We produce a rational homology 3-sphere that does not smoothly bound either a positive or negative definite 4-manifold. Such a 3-manifold necessarily cannot be rational homology cobordant to a Seifert fibered space or any 3-manifold…
Under certain homological hypotheses on a compact 4-manifold, we prove exactness of the topological surgery sequence at the stably smoothable normal invariants. The main examples are the class of finite connected sums of 4-manifolds with…
A group is SimpHAtic if it acts geometrically on a simply connected simplicially hereditarily aspherical (SimpHAtic) complex. We show that finitely presented normal subgroups of the SimpHAtic groups are either: finite, or of finite index,…
Any two homologous surfaces of the same genus embedded in a smooth 4-manifold X with simply-connected complements are shown to be smoothly isotopic in the connected sum of X and the product of a 2-sphere with itself, if the surfaces are…
We prove an analogue of the result of Hsiang and Kleiner for 4-dimensional compact orbifolds with positive curvature and an isometric circle action. Additionally, we prove that when the underlying space is simply connected, then the…
We consider the Euler characteristics $\chi(M)$ of closed orientable topological $2n$-manifolds with $(n-1)$-connected universal cover and a given fundamental group $G$ of type $F_n$. We define $q_{2n}(G)$, a generalized version of the…
We exhibit a family of metrizable manifolds such that any finite group appears as the fundamental group of one of them. These spaces are especially interesting as they can be easily visualized, as opposed to classical examples of spaces…
Let $(M^n,g)$, $n \ge 4$, be a compact simply-connected Riemannian manifold with nonnegative isotropic curvature. Given $0<l\le L$, we prove that there exists $\eps = \eps (l,L,n)$ satisfying the following: If the scalar curvature $s$ of…
We prove that many simply connected symplectic four-manifolds dissolve after connected sum with only one copy of $S^{2}\times S^{2}$. For any finite group G that acts freely on the three-sphere we construct closed smooth four-manifolds with…