Related papers: Finite groups, spherical 2-categories, and 4-manif…

Under certain homological hypotheses on a compact 4-manifold, we prove exactness of the topological surgery sequence at the stably smoothable normal invariants. The main examples are the class of finite connected sums of 4-manifolds with…

We prove that homotopy invariants of finite degree distinguish homotopy classes of maps of a connected compact CW-complex to a nilpotent connected CW-complex with finitely generated homotopy groups.

We introduce supergroup analogues of 3-manifold invariants $\hat{Z}$, also known as homological blocks, which were previously considered for ordinary compact semisimple Lie groups. We focus on superunitary groups, and work out the case of…

This paper continues the study of decompositions of a smooth 4-manifold into two handlebodies with handles of index $\leq2$. Part I gave existence results in terms of spines and chain complexes over the fundamental group of the ambient…

We relate the Donaldson invariants of two four-manifolds $X_i$ with embedded Riemann surfaces of genus 2 and self-intersection zero with the invariants of the manifold X which appears as a connected sum along the surfaces. When the original…

This is a survey article on the stable cohomotopy refinement of Seiberg-Witten invariants containing also new results, for example: - Stable cohomotopy groups describe path components of certain mapping spaces. - Relation of stable…

In this paper, Lusternik-Schinrelmann and geometric category of finite spaces are considered. We define new numerical invariants of these spaces derived from the geometric category and present an algorithmic approach for its effective…

Cubic complexes appear in the theory of finite type invariants so often that one can ascribe them to basic notions of the theory. In this paper we begin the exposition of finite type invariants from the `cubic' point of view. Finite type…

The search for classical or quantum combinatorial invariants of compact n-dimensional manifolds (n=3,4) plays a key role both in topological field theories and in lattice quantum gravity. We present here a generalization of the partition…

Techniques of gauge theory are used to define and compute an invariant of certain diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds. The invariant vanishes for any diffeomorphism which is smoothly isotopic to the identity. As an application, we give the first…

Symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states are short-range entangled states with a symmetry G. They belong to a new class of quantum states of matter which are classified by the group cohomology $H^{d+1}(G,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})$ in…

When $G$ is a connected compact Lie group, and $\pi$ is a closed surface group, then $Hom(\pi,G)$ contains an open dense $Out(\pi)$-invariant subset which is a smooth symplectic manifold. This symplectic structure is $Out(\pi)$-invariant…

Implementing an idea due to John Baez and James Dolan we define new invariants of Whitney stratified manifolds by considering the homotopy theory of smooth transversal maps. To each Whitney stratified manifold we assign transversal homotopy…

We generalise the Kreck-Stolz invariants s_2 and s_3 by defining a new invariant, the t-invariant, for quaternionic line bundles E over closed spin-manifolds M of dimension 4k-1 with H^3(M; \Q) = 0 such that c_2(E)\in H^4(M) is torsion. The…

For each nonnegative integer m we show that any closed, oriented topological four-manifold with fundamental group Z_{4m+2} and odd intersection form, with possibly seven exceptions, either admits no smooth structure or admits infinitely…

Using reduced Gromov-Witten theory, we define new invariants which capture the enumerative geometry of curves on holomorphic symplectic 4-folds. The invariants are analogous to the BPS counts of Gopakumar and Vafa for Calabi-Yau 3-folds,…

We describe some regular techniques of calculating finite degree invariants of triple points free smooth plane curves $S^1 \to R^2$. They are a direct analog of similar techniques for knot invariants and are based on the calculus of {\em…

Two 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic if they become diffeomorphic after connected sum with S^2 x S^2's. This paper shows that two closed, orientable, homotopy equivalent, smooth 4-manifolds are stably diffeomorphic, provided a certain…

We construct smooth manifolds with order two $\pi_1$ and even intersection forms which are irreducible, meaning they do not decompose into non-trivial connected sums. Their intersection forms being even implies that their universal covers…

We define a positive state sum for webs "of type D". These webs are graphs which mimic morphisms in the category of finite-dimensional quantum so(2N)-modules. From the state sum, we derive an invariant of framed unoriented links. After…