As a generalization of Davis-Januszkiewicz theory, there is an essential link between locally standard $(\Z_2)^n$-actions (or $T^n$-actions) actions and nice manifolds with corners, so that a class of nicely behaved equivariant cut-and-paste operations on locally standard actions can be carried out in step on nice manifolds with corners. Based upon this, we investigate what kinds of closed manifolds admit locally standard $(\Z_2)^n$-actions; especially for the 3-dimensional case.
Suppose $M$ is an orientable closed connected 3-manifold. When $H_1(M;\Z_2)=0$, it is shown that $M$ admits a locally standard $(\Z_2)^3$-action if and only if $M$ is homeomorphic to a connected sum of 8 copies of some $\Z_2$-homology sphere $N$, and if further assuming $M$ is irreducible, then $M$ must be homeomorphic to $S^3$. In addition, the argument is extended to rational homology 3-sphere $M$ with $H_1(M;\Z_2) \cong \Z_2$ and an additional assumption that the $(\Z_2)^3$-action has a fixed point.
A 2-torus manifold is a closed smooth manifold of dimension $n$ with an effective action of a 2-torus group $(\Z_2)^n$ of rank $n$, and it is said to be locally standard if it is locally isomorphic to a faithful representation of $(\Z_2)^n$ on $\R^n$. This paper studies the equivariant classification of locally standard 2-torus manifolds.
We show that the classical example $X$ of a 3-dimensional generalized manifold constructed by van Kampen is another example of not homologically locally connected (i.e. not HLC) space. This space $X$ is not locally homeomorphic to any of the compact metrizable 3-dimensional manifolds constructed in our earlier paper which are not HLC spaces either.
Bredon has constructed a 2-dimensional compact cohomology manifold which is not homologically locally connected, with respect to the singular homology. In the present paper we construct infinitely many such examples (which are in addition metrizable spaces) in all remaining dimensions $n \ge 3$.
In this note we compute low degree rational Pontryagin classes for every closed locally symmetric manifold of noncompact type. In particular, we answer the question: Which locally symmetric M have at least one nonzero Pontryagin class?
We investigate periodic diffeomorphisms of non-compact aspherical manifolds (and orbifolds) and describe a class of spaces that have no homotopically trivial periodic diffeomorphisms. Prominent examples are moduli spaces of curves and aspherical locally symmetric spaces with non-vanishing Euler characteristic. In the irreducible locally symmetric case, we show that no complete metric has more symmetry than the locally symmetric metric. In the moduli space case, we build on work of Farb and Weinberger and prove an analogue of Royden's theorem for complete finite volume metrics.
We construct a locally hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ such that $π_ 1(M)$ has no divisible subgroups. We then show that $M$ is not homotopy equivalent to any complete hyperbolic manifold.
We introduce an elementary way of constructing principal (Z_2)^m-bundles over compact smooth manifolds. In addition, we will define a general notion of locally standard (Z_2)^m-actions on closed manifolds for all m>0, and then give a general way to construct all such (Z_2)^m-actions from the orbit space. Some related topology problems are also studied.
We show that every closed, locally homogeneous Riemannian manifold with positive simplicial volume must be homeomorphic to a locally symmetric space of non-compact type.
We show that every topological n-manifold M admits a locally flat closed embedding $ι\colon M \hookrightarrow \mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$ and is a retract of some neighbourhood $U \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$
We use the reflection group trick to glue manifolds with corners that are Borel-Serre compactifications of locally symmetric spaces of noncompact type and obtain aspherical manifolds. We call these \emph{piecewise locally symmetric} manifolds. This class of spaces provide new examples of aspherical manifolds whose fundamental groups have the structure of a complex of groups. These manifolds typically do not admit a locally $\CAT(0)$ metric. We prove that any self homotopy equivalence of such manifolds is homotopic to a homeomorphism. We compute the group of self homotopy equivalences of such a…
We construct a locally hyperbolic 3-manifold $M_\infty$ such that $π_ 1(M_\infty)$ has no divisible subgroup. We then show that $M_\infty$ is not homeomorphic to any complete hyperbolic manifold. This answers a question of Agol [DHM06,Mar07].
We prove that a 3-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold which is locally collapsed, with respect to a lower curvature bound, is a graph manifold. This theorem was stated by Perelman and was used in his proof of the geometrization conjecture.
We study locally standard $T^k$-manifolds $M$. In particular, we study the case where there is a continuous section to the orbit map $π: M \rightarrow M/T$. We give a classification of $T^k$-manifolds satisfying these conditions up to equivariant diffeomorphism.
We give examples of open 3-manifolds and 3-orbifolds that exhibit pathological behavior with respect to splitting along surfaces (2-suborbifolds) with nonnegative Euler characteristic.
Let M be a geometrically finite rank one locally symmetric manifolds. We prove that the spectrum of the Laplace operator on M is finite in a small interval which is optimal.
This is a survey article on the existence of locally conformally flat(LCF) and self-dual(SD) metrics on various basic 4-manifolds like simply-connected ones or product types
In this paper, we show that the simplicial volume of Q-rank one locally symmetric spaces covered by the product of R-rank one symmetric spaces is strictly positive.
This paper pays a visit to a famous contractible open 3-manifold $W^3$ proposed by R. H. Bing in 1950's. By the finiteness theorem \cite{Hak68}, Haken proved that $W^3$ can embed in no compact 3-manifold. However, until now, the question about whether $W^3$ can embed in a more general compact space such as a compact, locally connected and locally 1-connected metric 3-space was not known. Using the techniques developed in Sternfeld's 1977 PhD thesis \cite{Ste77}, we answer the above question in negative. Furthermore, it is shown that $W^3$ can be utilized to produce counterexamples for every co…
This note describes sharp Milnor--Wood inequalities for the Euler number of flat oriented vector bundles over closed Riemannian manifolds locally isometric to products of hyperbolic planes. One consequence is that such manifolds do not admit an affine structure, confirming Chern--Sullivan's conjecture in this case. The manifolds under consideration are of particular interest, since in contrary to many other locally symmetric spaces they do admit flat vector bundle of the corresponding dimension. When the manifold is irreducible and of higher rank, it is shown that flat oriented vector bundles …
We give necessary conditions for the existence of a compact manifold locally modelled on a given homogeneous space, which generalize some earlier results, in terms of relative Lie algebra cohomology. Applications include both reductive and nonreductive cases. For example, we prove that there does not exist a compact manifold locally modelled on a positive dimensional coadjoint orbit of a real linear solvable algebraic group.
We show that if $g$ is a Riemannian metric on a closed piecewise locally symmetric manifold $M$, then the lift of $g$ to the universal cover $\widetilde{M}$ has a discrete isometry group. We also show that the index $[\Isom(\widetilde{M}): π_1(M)]$ is bounded by a constant independent of $g$.
We construct infinite families of non-simply connected locally conformally flat (LCF) 4-manifolds realizing rich topological types. These manifolds have strictly negative scalar curvature and the underlying topological 4-manifolds do not admit any Einstein metrics. Such 4-manifolds are of particular interest as examples of Bach-flat but non-Einstein spaces in the non-simply connected case. Besides that the underlying smooth manifolds are examples of spaces that admit open book decomposition in dimension 4.
In this article we construct closed, isospectral, non-isometric locally symmetric manifolds. We have three main results. First, we construct arbitrarily large sets of closed, isospectral, non-isometric manifolds. Second, we show the growth of size these sets of isospectral manifolds as a function of volume is super-polynomial. Finally, we construct pairs of infinite towers of finite covers of a closed manifold that are isospectral and non-isometric at each stage.
An old problem asks whether a Riemannian manifold can be isospectral to a Riemannian orbifold with nontrivial singular set. In this short note we show that under the assumption of Schanuel's conjecture in transcendental number theory, this is impossible whenever the orbifold and manifold in question are length-commensurable compact locally symmetric spaces of nonpositive curvature associated to simple Lie groups.
From the view of Heegaard splitting, it is known that if a closed orientable 3-manifold admits a distance at least three Heegaard splitting, then it is hyperbolic. However, for a closed orientable 3-manifold admitting only distance at most two Heegaard splittings, there are examples shows that it could be reducible, Seifert, toroidal or hyperbolic. According to Thurston's Geometrization conjecture, the most important piece of eight geometries is hyperbolic. Thus to read out a hyperbolic 3-manifold from a distance two Heegaard splittings is critical in studying Heegaard splittings. Inspired by …
In this paper we study the equidistribution of expanding horospheres in infinite volume geometrically finite rank one locally symmetric manifolds and apply it to the orbital counting problem in apollonian sphere packing.
We define \emph{piecewise rank 1} manifolds, which are aspherical manifolds that generally do not admit a nonpositively curved metric but can be decomposed into pieces that are diffeomorphic to finite volume, irreducible, locally symmetric, nonpositively curved manifolds with $π_1$-injective cusps. We prove smooth (self) rigidity for this class of manifolds in the case where the gluing preserves the cusps' homogeneous structure. We compute the group of self homotopy equivalences of such a manifold and show that it can contain a normal free abelian subgroup and thus, can be infinite. Elements o…
Based in the isomorphism between Lie algebroid cohomology and piecewise smooth cohomology, it is proved that the Rham cohomology of a locally trivial Lie groupoid $G$ on a smooth manifold $M$ is isomorphic to the piecewise Rham cohomology of $G$, in which $G$ and $M$ are manifolds without boundary and $M$ is smoothly triangulated by a finite simplicial complex $K$ such that, for each simplex $Δ$ of $K$, the inverse images of $Δ$ by the source and target mappings of $G$ are transverses submanifolds in the ambient space $G$. As a consequence, it is shown that the piecewise de Rham cohomology of …
By a construction of Berstein and Edmonds every proper branched cover f between manifolds is a factor of a branched covering orbit map from a locally connected and locally compact Hausdorff space called the monodromy space of f to the target manifold. For proper branched covers between 2-manifolds the monodromy space is known to be a manifold. We show that this does not generalize to dimension 3 by constructing a self-map of the 3-sphere for which the monodromy space is not a locally contractible space.
We consider closed manifolds that admit a metric locally isometric to a product of symmetric planes. For such manifolds, we prove that the Euler characteristic is an obstruction to the existence of flat structures, confirming an old conjecture proved by Milnor in dimension 2. In particular, the Chern conjecture follows in these cases. The proof goes via a new sharp Milnor--Wood inequality for Riemannian manifolds that are locally a product of hyperbolic planes. Furthermore, we analyze the possible flat vector bundles over such manifolds. Over closed Hilbert--Blumenthal modular varieties, we sh…
We extend the methods of Davis-Januszkiewicz-Lafont to provide a new obstruction to smooth Riemannian metric with non-positive sectional curvature. We construct examples of locally CAT(0) 4-manifolds $M$, whose universal covers satisfy isolated flats condition and contain 2-dimensional flats with the property that $\sqcup\ \partial^\infty F_i \hookrightarrow \partial^\infty \tilde M$ are non-trivial links that are not isotopic to any great circle link. Further, all the flats in $\tilde M$ are unknotted at infinity, and yet $M$ does not have a Riemannian smoothing.
In each manifold $M$ modeled on a finite or infinite dimensional cube $[0,1]^n$ we construct a meager $F_σ$-subset $X\subset M$ which is universal meager in the sense that for each meager subset $A\subset M$ there is a homeomorphism $h:M\to M$ such that $h(A)\subset X$. We also prove that any two universal meager $F_σ$-sets in $M$ are ambiently homeomorphic.
In this paper, we prove several structure theorems for locally conformally flat, positive Yamabe orbifolds and nonnegative scalar curvature, ALE manifolds. These two kinds of spaces can be related by conformal blow-up and conformal compactification. For the orbifolds, we prove that such orbifolds admit a manifold cover. For the ALE manifolds, the homomorphism of the fundamental group for the ALE space induced by the embedding of the ALE end is always injective. Using these properties, several classifications of such ALE manifolds and orbifolds are given in low dimensions. As an application to …
