Related papers: An obstruction to smooth isotopy in dimension 4
A theorem of Moser guarantees that every diffeomorphism of a closed manifold can be isotoped to a volume preserving one. We show that this statement cannot be extended into contact category: some connected components of contactomorphism…
The automorphisms of all 4-dimensional, real Lie Algebras are presented in a comprehensive way. Their action on the space of $4\times 4$, real, symmetric and positive definite, matrices, defines equivalence classes which are used for the…
We define a new invariant in the homology of a differential graded algebra. This invariant is the obstruction to defining a fourfold Massey product.
The polynomial invariants $q_d$ for a large class of smooth 4-manifolds are shown to satisfy universal relations. The relations reflect the possible genera of embedded surfaces in the 4-manifold and lead to a structure theorem for the…
It is well-known by the work of Hsiang and Kleiner that every closed oriented positively curved 4-dimensional manifold with an effective isometric S^1-action is homeomorphic to S^4 or CP^2. As stated, it is a topological classification. The…
We study the problem of desingularizing coassociative conical singularities via gluing, allowing for topological and analytic obstructions, and discuss applications. This extends the author's earlier work on the unobstructed case. We…
In this paper, we completely classify all compact 4-manifolds with positive isotropic curvature. We show that they are diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{S}^4,$ or $\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^4$ or quotients of $\mathbb{S}^3\times \mathbb{R}$ by a…
We provide an approach to study exotic phenomena in relatively small 4-manifolds that captures many different exotic behaviors under one umbrella. These phenomena include exotic smooth structures on 4-manifolds with $b_2=1$, examples of…
We review work on `decomposition,' a property of two-dimensional theories with 1-form symmetries and, more generally, d-dimensional theories with (d-1)-form symmetries. Decomposition is the observation that such quantum field theories are…
We study anomalies of non-invertible duality symmetries in both 2d and 4d, employing the tool of the Symmetry TFT. In the 2d case we rephrase the known obstruction theory for the Tambara-Yamagami fusion category in a way easily…
This is the third in our series of papers relating gauge theoretic invariants of certain 4-manifolds with invariants of 3-manifolds derived from Rohlin's theorem. Such relations are well-known in dimension three, starting with Casson's…
We consider the role of the diffeomorphism constraint in the quantization of lattice formulations of diffeomorphism invariant theories of connections. It has been argued that in working with abstract lattices, one automatically takes care…
Starting from the De Witt supermetric and limiting ourselves to a family of geometries characterized by a finite number of geometric invariants we extract the unique integration measure. Such a measure turns out to be a geometric invariant,…
This article presents the constructions of new infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic and, from their construction, seem to be quite different, but cannot be…
The goal of this book is to characterize algebraically the closed 4-manifolds that fibre nontrivially or admit geometries in the sense of Thurston, or which are obtained by surgery on 2-knots, and to provide a reference for the topology of…
We show that the gamma_i-deformation, which was proposed as candidate gauge theory for a non-supersymmetric three-parameter deformation of the AdS/CFT correspondence, is not conformally invariant due to a running double-trace coupling - not…
We study the extent to which diffeomorphism invariance restricts the properties of the primordial perturbations in single scalar field models. We derive a set of identities that constrain the connected correlators of the cosmological…
In low dimensional topology, we have some invariants defined by using solutions of some nonlinear elliptic operators. The invariants could be understood as Euler class or degree in the ordinary cohomology, in infinite dimensional setting.…
Donaldson-Thomas theory on a Calabi-Yau can be described in terms of a certain six-dimensional cohomological gauge theory. We introduce a certain class of defects in this gauge theory which generalize surface defects in four dimensions.…
It was shown by Seaman that if a compact, oriented 4-dimensional riemannian manifold (M, g) of positive sectional curvature admits a harmonic 2-form of constant length, its intersection form is definite and such a harmonic form is unique up…