Related papers: Manifold structures on highly connected Poincar\'e…
The Kuperberg invariant is a topological invariant of closed 3-manifolds based on finite-dimensional Hopf algebras. In this paper, we initiate the program of constructing 4-manifold invariants in the spirit of Kuperberg's 3-manifold…
Let M be a closed (n-1)-connected 2n-dimensional smooth manifold with n > 2. In terms of the system of invariants for such manifolds introduced by Wall, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for M to admit an almost complex…
The primary purpose of this paper concerns the relation of (compact) generalized manifolds to finite Poincar\'{e} duality complexes (PD complexes). The problem is that an arbitrary generalized manifold $X$ is always an ENR space, but it is…
Given a closed, smooth, connected, orientable $4$-manifold $M$, whose integral homology groups can have $2$-torsion, we determine the homotopy decomposition of the double suspension $\Sigma^2M$ as wedge sums of some elementary…
We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…
After explaining the importance of model categories in abstract homotopy theory, we provide concrete examples demonstrating that various categories of manifolds do not have all finite colimits, and hence cannot be model categories. We then…
One proves that there exists an obstruction to an open simply connected $n$-manifold of dimension $n\geq 5$ being geometrically simply connected. In particular there exist uncountably many simply connected $n$-manifolds which are not…
A manifold $M^n$ inherits a labeled $n$-dimensional graph $\widetilde{M}[G^L]$ structure consisting of its charts. This structure enables one to characterize fundamental groups of manifolds, classify those of locally compact manifolds with…
We classify, up to homeomorphism, all closed manifolds having the homotopy type of a connected sum of two copies of real projective n-space.
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.
For every $k \geq 2$ we construct infinitely many $4k$-dimensional manifolds that are all stably diffeomorphic but pairwise not homotopy equivalent. Each of these manifolds has hyperbolic intersection form and is stably parallelisable. In…
Beben and Wu showed that if $M$ is a $(2n-2)$-connected $(4n-1)$-dimensional Poincar\'{e} Duality complex such that $n\geq 3$ and $H^{2n}(M;\mathbb{Z})$ consists only of odd torsion, then $\Omega M$ can be decomposed up to homotopy as a…
We establish a relation between higher contact-like structures on supermanifolds and the N = 1 super-Poincare group via its superspace realisation. To do this we introduce a vector-valued contact structure, which we refer to as a…
We prove that for any $n\geq 4$ there are infinitely many real homotopy types of $2n$-dimensional nilmanifolds admitting generalized complex structures of every type $k$, for $0 \leq k \leq n$. This is in deep contrast to the…
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 classify invariant almost complex structures on homogeneous manifolds of dimension 6 with semi-simple isotropy. Those with non-degenerate Nijenhuis tensor have the automorphism group of dimension either 14 or 9. An invariant almost…
We classify, up to diffeomorphism, all closed smooth manifolds homeomorphic to the complex projective $n$-space $\mathbb{C}\textbf{P}^n$, where $n=3$ and $4$. Let $M^{2n}$ be a closed smooth $2n$-manifold homotopy equivalent to…
In a recent article, the authors constructed a six-parameter family of highly connected 7-manifolds which admit an SO(3)-invariant metric of non-negative sectional curvature. Each member of this family is the total space of a Seifert…
It is well-known that an n-dimensional Poincar\'{e} complex $X^n$, $n \ge 5$, has the homotopy type of a compact topological $n$-manifold if the total surgery obstruction $s(X^n)$ vanishes. The present paper discusses recent attempts to…
Let Z be a compact complex (2n+1)-manifold which carries a {\em complex contact structure}, meaning a codimension-1 holomorphic sub-bundle D of TZ which is maximally non-integrable. If Z admits a K\"ahler-Einstein metric of positive scalar…