Related papers: An obstruction to smooth isotopy in dimension 4

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…

Consider a connected manifold of dimension at least two and the group of compactly supported diffeomorphisms that are compactly supported isotopic to the identity. This group acts $n$-transitive: Any tuple of $n$ points can be moved to any…

For a compact $(2n+1)$-dimensional smooth manifold, let $\mu_M : B Diff_\partial (D^{2n+1}) \to B Diff (M)$ be the map that is defined by extending diffeomorphisms on an embedded disc by the identity. By a classical result of Farrell and…

Relying on known results of the Noether theory of symmetries extended to constrained systems, it is shown that there exists an obstruction that prevents certain tangent-space diffeomorphisms to be projectable to phase-space, for generally…

If the diffeomorphism symmetry of general relativity is fully implemented into a path integral quantum theory, the path integral leads to a partition function which is an invariant of smooth manifolds. We comment on the physical…

Using Heegaard Floer homology, we construct a numerical invariant for any smooth, oriented $4$-manifold $X$ with the homology of $S^1 \times S^3$. Specifically, we show that for any smoothly embedded $3$-manifold $Y$ representing a…

Watanabe's theta graph diffeomorphism, constructed using Watanabe's clasper surgery construction which turns trivalent graphs in 4-manifolds into parameterized families of diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds, is a diffeomorphism of $S^4$…

The adjunction inequality is a key tool for bounding the genus of smoothly embedded surfaces in 4-manifolds. Using gauge-theoretic invariants, many versions of this inequality have been established for both closed surfaces and surfaces with…

We study a deformation of infinitesimal diffeomorphisms of a smooth manifold. The deformation is based on a general twist. This leads to a differential geometry on a noncommutative algebra of functions whose product is a star-product. The…

We first review the notion of a $G_2$-manifold, defined in terms of a principal $G_2$ ("gauge") bundle over a $7$-dimensional manifold, before discussing their relation to supergravity. In a second thread, we focus on associative…

We introduce new methods in pseudo-isotopy and embedding space theory. As an application we introduce an invariant that detects nontrivial loops of embedded 2-spheres in $S^{2} \times S^{2}$ and in connected sums of $S^{2} \times S^{2}$.…

This paper addresses several isotopy problems on $4$-manifolds. First, we classify the isotopy classes of embeddings of $\Sigma$ in $\Sigma\times S^2$ that are geometrically dual to $\{\mbox{pt}\}\times S^2$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed…

Dimension four provides a peculiarly idiosyncratic setting for the interplay between scalar curvature and differential topology. Here we will explain some of the peculiarities of the four-dimensional realm via a careful discussion of the…

We construct infinitely many smooth 4-manifolds which are homotopy equivalent to $S^2$ but do not admit a spine, i.e., a piecewise-linear embedding of $S^2$ which realizes the homotopy equivalence. This is the remaining case in the…

It is proved that isomorphisms between algebras of smooth functions on Hausdorff smooth manifolds are implemented by diffeomorphisms. It is not required that manifolds are second countable nor paracompact. This solves a problem stated by A.…

We present a way of constructing and deforming diffeomorphisms of manifolds endowed with a Lie group action. This is applied to the study of exotic diffeomorphisms and involutions of spheres and to the equivariant homotopy of Lie groups.

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…

In relation to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincar\'e conjecture we construct a tentative invariant of homotopy 4-spheres using embedded contact homology (ECH) and Seiberg-Witten theory (SWF). But for good reason it is a constant value…

We present an efficient method for finding the independent invariant tensors of a gauge theory. Our method uses a theorem relating invariant tensors and D-flat directions in field space. We apply our method to several examples-- SO(3) with…

We show that there exist smooth, simply connected, four-dimensional spin manifolds which do not admit Einstein metrics, but nonetheless satisfy the strict Hitchin-Thorpe inequality. Our construction makes use of the Bauer/Furuta cohomotopy…