Related papers: Non-complex symplectic 4-manifolds with $b_{2}^{+}…

This is a slightly altered version of the authors thesis from 2014. In the first main part we show that the quotient space of a compact, simply connected and nonnegatively curved Riemannian 4-manifold by an effective, isometric…

A link in the 3-sphere is homotopically trivial, according to Milnor, if its components bound disjoint maps of disks in the 4-ball. This paper concerns the question of what spaces give rise to the same class of homotopically trivial links…

In this paper we determine the integral homology and cohomology groups of a closed 4-manifold X obtained as the generalized fibre sum of two closed 4-manifolds M and N along embedded surfaces of genus g and self-intersection zero. If the…

A log symplectic manifold is a Poisson manifold which is generically nondegenerate. We develop two methods for constructing the symplectic groupoids of log symplectic manifolds. The first is a blow-up construction, corresponding to the…

There are three types of involutions on a cubic fourfold; two of anti-symplectic type, and one symplectic. Here we show that cubics with involutions exhibit the full range of behaviour in relation to rationality conjectures. Namely, we show…

We use almost toric fibrations and the symplectic rational blow-up to determine when certain Lagrangian pinwheels, which we call liminal, embed in symplectic rational and ruled surfaces. The case of $L_{2,1}$-pinwheels, namely Lagrangian…

We show that the pre-order defined on the category of contact manifolds by arbitrary symplectic cobordisms is considerably less rigid than its counterparts for exact or Stein cobordisms: in particular, we exhibit large new classes of…

We classify closed, topological spin$^+$ 4-manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ of cohomological dimension $\leq 3$ (up to s-cobordism), after stabilization by connected sum with at most $b_3(\pi)$ copies of $S^2\times S^2$. In general we…

Let $M$ be either $S^2\times S^2$ or the one point blow-up $\cp# \bcp$ of $\cp$. In both cases $M$ carries a family of symplectic forms $\om_\la$, where $\la > -1$ determines the cohomology class $[\om_\la]$. This paper calculates the…

Homoclinic bifurcation of 4-dimensional symplectic mappings is asymptotically studied. We construct the 2-dimensional stable and unstable manifolds near the sub-manifolds which experience exponentially small splitting, and successfully…

In this paper, we introduce the study of minimal torsion curves within a fixed geometric isogeny class. For a $\overline{\mathbb{Q}}$-isogeny class $\mathcal{E}$ of elliptic curves and $N \in \mathbb{Z}^+$, we wish to determine the least…

In this paper, we study certain compact 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature $K$. If $s$ is the scalar curvature and $W_+$ is the self-dual part of Weyl tensor, then it will be shown that there is no metric $g$ on $S^2 \times…

We give two constructions of families of elliptic curves over cubic or quartic fields with three, respectively four, `integral' elements in the kernel of the tame symbol on the curves. The fields are in general non-Abelian, and the elements…

We note that infinitely many irreducible, closed, simply connected 4-manifolds, with prescribed signature and spin type, admit perfect Morse functions, i.e. they can be given handle decompositions without 1- and 3-handles. In particular,…

Classically, an indecomposable class $R$ in the cone of effective curves on a K3 surface $X$ is representable by a smooth rational curve if and only if $R^2=-2$. We prove a higher-dimensional generalization conjectured by Hassett and…

Let C be a curve (possibly non reduced or reducible) lying on a smooth algebraic surface. We show that the canonical ring R(C, \omega_C) is generated in degree 1 if C is numerically 4-connected, not hyperelliptic and even (i.e. with K_C of…

Let $(M,\omega,J,g)$ be a non-compact almost K\"ahler manifold. In this paper we provide various criteria that assure that $\omega^k$ induces a non trivial class in the reduced $L^p$ maximal/minimal cohomology of $(M,g)$. Furthermore in the…

In this paper we classify symplectic Lefschetz fibrations (with empty base locus) on a four-manifold which is the product of a three-manifold with a circle. This result provides further evidence in support of the following conjecture…

We show that, for any two orientable smooth open 4-manifolds $X_0,X_1$ which are homeomorphic, their cotangent bundles $T^*X_0,T^*X_1$ are symplectomorphic with their canonical symplectic structure. In particular, for any smooth manifold…

Simply-connected manifolds of positive sectional curvature $M$ are speculated to have a rigid topological structure. In particular, they are conjectured to be rationally elliptic, i.e., all but finitely many homotopy groups are conjectured…