Related papers: Spin Manifolds, Einstein Metrics, and Differential…

It is shown that there are infinitely many compact orientable smooth 4-manifolds which do not admit Einstein metrics, but nevertheless satisfy the strict Hitchin-Thorpe inequality 2 chi > 3 |tau|. The examples in question arise as…

We prove that there are infinitely many pairs of homeomorphic non-diffeomorphic smooth 4-manifolds, such that in each pair one manifold admits an Einstein metric and the other does not. We also show that there are closed 4-manifolds with…

This article presents a new and more elementary proof of the main Seiberg-Witten-based obstruction to the existence of Einstein metrics on smooth compact 4-manifolds. It also introduces a new smooth manifold invariant which conveniently…

We show that each of the topological 4-manifolds $CP^2#k\bar{CP^2}, for $k = 6, 7$ admits a smooth structure which has an Einstein metric of scalar curvature $s > 0$, a smooth structure which has an Einstein metric with $s < 0$ and…

Seiberg-Witten theory leads to a delicate interplay between Riemannian geometry and smooth topology in dimension four. In particular, the scalar curvature of any metric must satisfy certain non-trivial estimates if the manifold in question…

We introduce the notion of a special monopole class on a four-manifold. This is used to prove restrictions on the smooth structures of Einstein manifolds. As an application we prove that there are Einstein four-manifolds which are simply…

We construct infinitely many examples of finite volume 4-manifolds with $T^3$ ends that do not admit any cusped asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein metrics yet satisfy a strict logarithmic version of the Hitchin-Thorpe inequality due to…

We prove that for every natural number k there are simply connected topological four-manifolds which have at leat k distinct smooth structures supporting Einstein metrics, and also have infinitely many distinct smooth structures not…

This paper investigates the question of which smooth compact 4-manifolds admit Riemannian metrics that minimize the L2-norm of the curvature tensor. Metrics with this property are called OPTIMAL; Einstein metrics and scalar-flat…

We construct examples of four dimensional manifolds with Spin$^c$-structures, whose moduli spaces of solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equations, represent a non-trivial bordism class of positive dimension, i.e. the Spin$^c$-structures are…

We show that the minimal volume entropy of closed manifolds remains unaffected when nonessential manifolds are added in a connected sum. We combine this result with the stable cohomotopy invariant of Bauer-Furuta in order to present an…

We develop a notion of Einstein manifolds with skew torsion on compact, orientable Riemannian manifolds of dimension four. We prove an analogue of the Hitchin-Thorpe inequality and study the case of equality. We use the link with…

By using the gluing formulae of the Seiberg-Witten invariant, we show the nonexistence of Einstein metric on manifolds obtained from a 4-manifold with nontrivial Seiberg-Witten invariant by performing sufficiently many connected sums or…

Which smooth compact 4-manifolds admit an Einstein metric with non-negative Einstein constant? A complete answer is provided in the special case of 4-manifolds that also happen to admit either a complex structure or a symplectic structure.

We prove a Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for noncompact Einstein 4-manifolds with asymptotic geometry at infinity. The asymptotic geometry at infinity is either a cusp bundle over a compact space (the fibered cusps) or a fiber bundle over a…

This paper is concerned with the construction of special metrics on non-compact 4-manifolds which arise as resolutions of complex orbifold singularities. Our study is close in spirit to the construction of the hyperkaehler gravitational…

The existence or non-existence of Einstein metrics on 4-manifolds with non-trivial fundamental group and the relation with the underlying differential structure are analyzed. For most points $(n,m)$ in a large region of the integer lattice,…

We present an explicit construction of closed oriented aspherical smooth 4-manifolds with $\chi = \sigma = n$ for every positive integer $n$. This proves a conjecture of Edmonds by providing a closed oriented aspherical 4-manifold with…

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 find obstructions to the existence of Einstein metrics of non-negative sectional curvature on a smooth closed simply connected manifold of any dimension. The results are achieved by combining the classical Morse theory of the loop space…