Related papers: Four-manifolds, geometries and knots

Suppose that $W$ and $W'$ are smooth, compact, and oriented $4$-manifolds that are either diffeomorphic to $S^1$ times the exterior $E_Y(K)$ of a fibered knot $K$ in a closed, connected, orientable $3$-manifold $Y$, or are diffeomorphic to…

We discuss a possible definition for "$k$-width" of both a closed $d$-manifold $M^d$, and on embedding $M^d \overset{e}{\hookrightarrow} \mathbb{R}^n$, $n > d \ge k$, generalizing the classical notion of width of a knot. We show that for…

We present a classification theorem for closed smooth spin 2-connected 7-manifolds M. This builds on the almost-smooth classification from the first author's thesis. The main additional ingredient is an extension of the Eells-Kuiper…

We prove that every 4-dimensional oriented handlebody without 3- and 4-handles can be modified to admit infinitely many exotic smooth structures, and moreover prove that their genus functions are pairwise equivalent. We furthermore show…

First the title could be also understood as ``3-manifolds related by non-zero degree maps" or "Degrees of maps between 3-manifolds" for some aspects in this survey talk. The topology of surfaces was completely understood at the end of 19th…

We give a simple criterion when a Gluck twisting an odd smooth 4-manifold along a 2-sphere $S\subset X$ does not change its diffeomorphism type. We obtain this by handlebody techniques and plug twisting operation, getting a slightly…

We study a one-parameter family of time-reversible Hamiltonian vector fields in $\mathbb{R}^4$, which has received great attention in the literature. On the one hand, it is due to the role it plays in the context of certain applications in…

In this article we show that every closed oriented smooth 4-manifold can be decomposed into two codimension zero submanifolds (one with reversed orientation) so that both pieces are exact Kahler manifolds with strictly pseudoconvex…

The notion of a Bing cell is introduced, and it is used to define invariants, link groups, of 4-manifolds. Bing cells combine some features of both surfaces and 4-dimensional handlebodies, and the link group \lambda(M) measures certain…

The space of n-sided polygons embedded in three-space consists of a smooth manifold in which points correspond to piecewise linear or ``geometric'' knots, while paths correspond to isotopies which preserve the geometric structure of these…

We study contact structures compatible with genus one open book decompositions with one boundary component. Any monodromy for such an open book can be written as a product of Dehn twists around dual non-separating curves in the…

A polynomial is presented that models a topological knot in a unique manner. It distinguishes all types of knots including the orientation and has a group theory interpretation. The topologies may be labeled via a number, which upon a base…

We introduce multisections of smooth, closed 4-manifolds, which generalize trisections to decompositions with more than three pieces. This decomposition describes an arbitrary smooth, closed 4-manifold as a sequence of cut systems on a…

We compute characteristic numbers of elliptically fibered fourfolds with multisections or non-trivial Mordell-Weil groups. We first consider the models of type E$_{9-d}$ with $d=1,2,3,4$ whose generic fibers are normal elliptic curves of…

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…

Fintushel and Stern have proved that if S \subset X is a symplectic surface in a symplectic 4-manifold such that S has simply-connected complement and nonnegative self-intersection, then there are infinitely many topologically equivalent…

We explain the notion of a grope cobordism between two knots in a 3-manifold. Each grope cobordism has a type that can be described by a rooted unitrivalent tree. By filtering these trees in different ways, we show how the Goussarov-Habiro…

Under a simple assumption on Seifert surfaces, we characterise knots whose stable topological 4-genus coincides with the genus.

The purpose of this note is to explain a combinatorial description of closed smooth oriented 4-manifolds in terms of positive Dehn twist factorizations of surface mapping classes, and further explore these connections. This is obtained via…

This paper is concerned with the problem of stable diffeomorphism classification of 4-manifolds obtained using the surgery on loops. The main theorem states that under the assumption that the normal 1-type of two 4-manifolds in question is…