This is the beginning of an obstruction theory for deciding whether a map f:S^2 --> X^4 is homotopic to a topologically flat embedding, in the presence of fundamental group and in the absence of dual spheres. The first obstruction is Wall's self-intersection number mu(f) which tells the whole story in higher dimensions. Our second order obstruction tau(f) is defined if mu(f) vanishes and has formally very similar properties, except that it lies in a quotient of the group ring of two copies of pi_1(X) modulo S_3-symmetry (rather then just one copy modulo S_3-symmetry). It generalizes to the non-simply connected setting the Kervaire-Milnor invariant which corresponds to the Arf-invariant of knots in 3-space.
We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for moving three maps f_1,f_2,f_3:S^2 --> X^4 to a position in which they have disjoint images. Again the obstruction lambda(f_1,f_2,f_3) generalizes Wall's intersection number lambda(f_1,f_2) which answers the same question for two spheres but is not sufficient (in dimension 4) for three spheres. In the same way as intersection numbers correspond to linking numbers in dimension 3, our new invariant corresponds to the Milnor invariant mu(1,2,3), generalizing the Matsumoto triple to the non simply-connected setting.
We give some constraints on intersection forms of spin 4-manifolds bounded by Seifert rational homology 3-spheres in terms of the $\barμ$ invariant and compare them with those in terms of the $κ$ invariant. We also show that the difference between $κ$ and $-\barμ$ for a Seifert rational homology 3-sphere is at most 2, and under certain extra conditions the difference is 0.
Take transverse immersions f from a disjoint unin of the three 4-spheres $S^4_1$, $S^4_2$, and $S^4_3$ into $S^6$ with the following properties: (1) The restriction of $f$ to $S^4_i$ is an embedding, (2) The intersection of $f(S^4_i)$ and $f(S^4_j)$ is not empty and connected, (3)The intersection among $f(S^4_1)$, $f(S^4_2)$, and $f(S^4_3)$ is not empty. Then we obtain three surface-links $L_i=(S^4_i\cap S^4_j, S^4_i\cap S^4_k)$ in $S^4_i$, where $(i,j,k)=(1,2,3), (2,3,1), (3,1,2).$ We prove that, we have the equality $β(L_1)+β(L_2)+β(L_3)=0$, where $β(L_i)$ is the Sato-Levine invariant of $L_…
We prove Furuta-type bounds for the intersection forms of spin cobordisms between homology 3-spheres. The bounds are in terms of a new numerical invariant of homology spheres, obtained from Pin(2)-equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer K-theory. In the process we introduce the notion of a Floer K_G-split homology sphere; this concept may be useful in an approach to the 11/8 conjecture.
We calculate the intersection ring of three-dimensional graph manifolds with rational coefficients and give an algebraic characterization of these rings when the manifold's underlying graph is a tree. We are able to use this characterization to show that the intersection ring obstructs arbitrary three-manifolds from being homology cobordant to certain graph manifolds.
Using Seiberg-Witten Floer spectrum and Pin(2)-equivariant KO-theory, we prove new Furuta-type inequalities on the intersection forms of spin cobordisms between homology $3$-spheres. As an application, we give explicit constrains on the intersection forms of spin $4$-manifolds bounded by Brieskorn spheres $\pmΣ(2,3,6k\pm1)$. Along the way, we also give an alternative proof of Furuta-Kametanni's improvement of 10/8-theorem for closed spin-4 manifolds.
We obtain some restrictions on the topology of infinite volume hyperbolic manifolds. In particular, for any n and any closed negatively curved manifold M of dimension greater than 2, only finitely many hyperbolic n-manifolds are total spaces of orientable vector bundles over M.
We introduce a variant of the Seiberg-Witten equations, Pin^-(2)-monopole equations, and give its applications to intersection forms with local coefficients of 4-manifolds. The first application is an analogue of Froyshov's results on 4-manifolds which have definite forms with local coefficients. The second is a local coefficient version of Furuta's 10/8-inequality. As a corollary, we construct nonsmoothable spin 4-manifolds satisfying Rohlin's theorem and the 10/8-inequality.
An obstruction theory for representing homotopy classes of surfaces in 4-manifolds by immersions with pairwise disjoint images is developed, using the theory of non-repeating Whitney towers. The accompanying higher-order intersection invariants provide a geometric generalization of Milnor's link-homotopy invariants, and can give the complete obstruction to pulling apart 2-spheres in certain families of 4-manifolds. It is also shown that in an arbitrary simply connected 4-manifold any number of parallel copies of an immersed surface with vanishing self-intersection number can be pulled apart, a…
We solve some computational problems for triangulated closed three-dimensional manifolds using groups of simplicial homology and cohomology modulo 2. Two efficient algorithms for computing the intersection numbers of 1- and 2-dimensional cycles are developed. By means of these algorithms it is possible to construct a basis of cohomology group from the homology group of two cycles of complementary dimensions.
The second Betti number of a smooth, closed, connected and simply connected, four-dimensional spin manifold is greater or equal 11/8 times the abolute value of its signature.
A subset of the sphere is said short if it is contained in an open hemisphere. A short closed set which is geodesically convex is called a cap. The following theorem holds: 1. The minimal number of short closed sets covering the $n$-sphere is $n+2$. 2. If $n+2$ short closed sets cover the $n$-sphere then (i) their intersection is empty; (ii) the intersection of any proper subfamily of them is non-empty. In the case of caps (i) and (ii) are also sufficient for the family to be a covering of the sphere.
We study intersection of two polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. We find necessary and sufficient conditions on sequences x = x_1,x_2,...,x_n, y = y_1,y_2,...,y_n of positive integers, for existence of 2-dimensional polyhedra f,g in R^3 homeomorphic to the sphere and such that * f-g has n connected components, of which the i-th one has x_i neighbors in f and * g-f has n connected components, of which the i-th one has y_i neighbors in g. Analogously we study intersection of three polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. Russian version is accessible to hig…
We show that a graph manifold which is a Z-homology 3-sphere not homeomorphic to either the 3-sphere or the Poincaré homology 3-sphere admits a horizontal foliation. This combines with known results to show that the conditions of not being an L-space, of having a left-orderable fundamental group, and of admitting a co-oriented taut foliation, are equivalent for graph manifold Z-homology 3-spheres.
Examples are given to show that some compact contractible 4-manifolds can be knotted in the 4-sphere. It is then proved that any finitely presented perfect group with a balanced presentation is a knot group for an embedding of some contractible 4-manifold in the 4-sphere.
In this paper we construct a topological model for the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants for $3$-manifolds coming from the quantum group $U_q(sl(2))$, as graded intersection pairings of homology classes in configuration spaces. More precisely, for a fixed level $\cN \in \N$ we show that the level $\cN$ WRT invariant for a $3-$manifold is a state sum of Lagrangian intersections in a covering of a {\bf fixed} configuration space in the punctured disk. This model brings a new perspective on the structure of the level $\cN$ Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant, showing that it is completely enco…
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 stronger version of the known fact that Gluck twisting of a 2-sphere $S\subset X$ of a compact smooth 4-manifold with an odd spherical class, in the complement of S, does not change the diffeomorphism type of X. This is the best possible result on Gluck twisting manifolds with odd homology classes.
Given a diagram for a trisection of a 4-manifold $X$, we describe the homology and the intersection form of $X$ in terms of the three subgroups of $H_1(Σ;\mathbb{Z})$ generated by the three sets of curves and the intersection pairing on the diagram surface $Σ$. This includes explicit formulas for the second and third homology groups of $X$ as well an algorithm to compute the intersection form. Moreover, we show that all $(g;k,0,0)$-trisections admit "algebraically trivial" diagrams.
It was shown in my earlier article that the splice diagram of a rational homology sphere graph manifold determines the manifolds universal abelian cover. In this article we use the proof of this to give a condition on the splice diagram to determine when the universal abelian cover itself is a rational homology sphere.
A strategy for constructing an embedded sphere in a 4-manifold realizing a given homology class which has been successfully applied in the past is to represent the class as a first step stably by an embedded sphere, i.e. after adding products of 2-spheres, and to move that sphere back into the original manifold. In this paper, we study under what conditions the first step of this approach can be carried out if the 4-manifold at hand is not simply connected. One of our main results is that there are - apart from the well known Arf invariant - additional bordism theoretical obstructions to stabl…
Let $S_0$ and $S_1$ be two homotopic, oriented 2-spheres embedded in an orientable 4-manifold $X$. After discussing several operations for modifying an immersion of a 3-manifold into a 5-manifold, we discuss the Freedman--Quinn (fq) and Stong (stong) concordance obstructions. When these are defined for the pair $S_0,S_1$, they are defined in terms of the self-intersection set of a regular homotopy from $S_0$ to $S_1$. When $S_0$ has an immersed dual sphere, we see that under some mild topological conditions on $X$, the invariants fq and stong are a complete set of concordance obstructions. Thi…
In terms of Turaev's shadows, we provide a sufficient condition for a compact, smooth, acyclic 4-manifold with boundary the 3-sphere to be diffeomorphic to the standard 4-ball. As a consequence, we prove that if a compact, smooth, acyclic 4-manifold with boundary the 3-sphere has shadow-complexity at most 2, then it is diffeomorphic to the standard 4-ball.
In this note we study whether specific elements in the second homology of specific simply connected closed $4$-manifolds can be represented by smooth or topologically flat embedded spheres.
We construct infinitely many smooth oriented 4-manifolds containing pairs of homotopic, smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are not topologically isotopic, but that are equivalent by an ambient diffeomorphism inducing the identity on homology. These examples show that Gabai's recent "Generalized" 4D Lightbulb Theorem does not generalize to arbitrary 4-manifolds. In contrast, we also show that there are smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are both equivalent and topologically isotopic, but not smoothly isotopic.
Gay and Kirby introduced trisections which describe any closed oriented smooth 4-manifold $X$ as a union of three four-dimensional handlebodies. A trisection is encoded in a diagram, namely three collections of curves in a closed oriented surface $Σ$, guiding the gluing of the handlebodies. Any morphism $φ$ from $π_1(X)$ to a finitely generated free abelian group induces a morphism on $π_1(Σ)$. We express the twisted homology and Reidemeister torsion of $(X;φ)$ in terms of the first homology of $(Σ;φ)$ and the three subspaces generated by the collections of curves. We also express the intersec…
We provide a calculus for the presentation of closed 3-manifolds via nullhomotopic filling Dehn spheres and we use it to define an invariant of closed 3-manifolds by applying the state-sum machinery. As a potential application of this invariant, we show how to get lower bounds for the Matveev complexity of P2-irreducible closed 3-manifolds. We also describe an easy algorithm for constructing a nullhomotopic filling Dehn sphere of each closed 3-manifold from any of its one-vertex triangulations.
It has long been known that every quasi-homogeneous normal complex surface singularity with Q-homology sphere link has universal abelian cover a Brieskorn complete intersection singularity. We describe a broad generalization: First, one has a class of complete intersection normal complex surface singularities called "splice type singularities", which generalize Brieskorn complete intersections. Second, these arise as universal abelian covers of a class of normal surface singularities with Q-homology sphere links, called "splice-quotient singularities". According to the Main Theorem, splice-quo…
This paper studies certain embedded spheres in closed affine manifolds. For $n \geq 3$, we investigate the dome bodies in a closed affine $n$-manifold $M$ with its boundary homeomorphic to a sphere under the assumption that a developing map restricted to a component of $\partial\hat{M}$ is an embedding onto a strictly convex sphere in $\mathbb{A}^n$. By using the recurrent property of an incomplete geodesic we show that dome bodies are compact. Then a maximal dome body is a closed solid ball bounded by a component of $\partial\hat{M}$, and hence equals $\hat{M}$. The main theorem is that the s…
We show that, if a rational homology 3-sphere $Y$ bounds a positive definite smooth 4-manifold, then there are finitely many negative definite lattices, up to the stable-equivalence, which can be realized as the intersection form of a smooth 4-manifold bounded by $Y$. To this end, we make use of constraints on definite forms bounded by $Y$ induced from Donaldson's diagonalization theorem, and correction term invariants due to Frøyshov, and Ozsváth and Szabó. In particular, we prove that all spherical 3-manifolds satisfy such finiteness property.
We classify the topological types for the unions of the totally geodesic 3-punctured spheres in orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds. General types of the unions appear in various hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Each of the special types of the unions appears only in a single hyperbolic 3-manifold or Dehn fillings of a single hyperbolic 3-manifold. Furthermore, we investigate bounds of the moduli of adjacent cusps for the union of linearly placed 3-punctured spheres.
Regular homotopy classes of immersions of a 3-sphere in 5-space constitute an infinite cyclic group. The classes containing embeddings form a subgroup of index 24. The obstruction for a generic immersion to be regularly homotopic to an embedding is described in terms of geometric invariants of its self intersection. Geometric properties of self intersections are used to construct two invariants J and St of generic immersions which are analogous to Arnold's invariants of plane curves. We prove that J and St are independent first order invariants and that any first order invariant is a linear co…
The intersection matrix of a simplicial complex has entries equal to the rank of the intersection of its facets. In [1] the authors prove the intersection matrix is enough to determine a triangulation of a surface up to isomorphism. In this work we show the intersection matrix is enough to determine the triangulation of a 3-manifold up to isomorphism.
A filling Dehn sphere $Σ$ in a closed 3-manifold $M$ is a sphere transversely immersed in $M$ that defines a cell decomposition of $M$. Every closed 3-manifold has a filling Dehn sphere. The Montesinos complexity of a $3$-manifold $M$ is defined as the minimal number of triple points among all the filling Dehn spheres of $M$. A sharp upper bound for the Montesinos complexity of the connected sum of two 3-manifolds is given.
One method for obtaining every closed orientable 3-manifold is as branched covering of the 3-sphere over a link. There is a classical topological result showing that the minimun possible number of sheets in the covering is three. In this paper we obtain a geometric version of this result. The interest is given by the growing importance of geometry in 3-manifolds theory.
Let S^3_i be a 3-sphere embedded in the 5-sphere S^5 (i=1,2). Let S^3_1 and S^3_2 intersect transversely. Then the intersection C of S^3_1 and S^3_2 is a disjoint collection of circles. Thus we obtain a pair of 1-links, C in S^3_i (i=1,2), and a pair of 3-knots, S^3_i in S^5 (i=1,2). Conversely let (L_1,L_2) be a pair of 1-links and (X_1,X_2) be a pair of 3-knots. It is natural to ask whether the pair of 1-links (L_1,L_2) is obtained as the intersection of the 3-knots X_1 and X_2 as above. We give a complete answer to this question. Our answer gives a new geometric meaning of the Arf invariant…
We determine the contributions of isolated singularities of spin V 4-manifolds to the index of the Dirac operator over them. From these data we derive certain constraints on the intersection forms of spin 4-manifolds bounded by spherical 3-manifolds, and also on the embeddings of the real projective planes into 4-manifolds.
We extend Donaldson's diagonalization theorem to intersection forms with certain local coefficients, under some constraints. This provides new examples of non-smoothable topological 4-manifolds.
We show that Brieskorn manifolds with their standard contact structures are contact branched coverings of spheres. This covering maps a contact open book decomposition of the Brieskorn manifold onto a Milnor open book of the sphere.
We consider two natural Lagrangian intersection problems in the context of symplectic toric manifolds: displaceability of torus orbits and of a torus orbit with the real part of the toric manifold. Our remarks address the fact that one can use simple cartesian product and symplectic reduction considerations to go from basic examples to much more sophisticated ones. We show in particular how rigidity results for the above Lagrangian intersection problems in weighted projective spaces can be combined with these considerations to prove analogous results for all monotone toric symplectic manifolds…
We construct infinitely many non-diffeomorphic examples of $5$-dimensional contact manifolds which are tight, admit no strong fillings, and do not have Giroux torsion. We obtain obstruction results for symplectic cobordisms, for which we give a proof not relying on the polyfold abstract perturbation scheme for SFT. These results are part of the author's PhD thesis, and are the first applications of higher-dimensional Siefring intersection theory for holomorphic curves and hypersurfaces.
In this paper, we introduce a category of graded commutative rings with certain algebraic morphisms, to investigate the cobordism category of plumbed 3-manifolds. In particular, we define a non-associative distributive algebra that gives necessary conditions for an abstract morphism between the homologies of two plumbed 3-manifolds to be realized geometrically by a cobordism. Here we also consider the homology cobordism monoid, and give a necessary condition using w-invariants for the homology 3-spheres to belong to the inertia group associated to some homology 3-spheres.
In this paper we study embeddings of contact manifolds using braidings of one manifold about another. In particular we show how to embed many contact 3-manifolds into the standard contact 5-sphere. We also show how to obstruct braidings of one manifold about another using contact geometry.
Here we discuss an example of topologically isotopic but smoothly non-isotopic pair of 2-spheres in a simply connected 4-manifold, which become smoothly isotopic after stabilizing by connected summing with S^2 x S^2.
Let M be a compact oriented PL manifold and let C_*M be its PL chain complex. The domain of the chain-level intersection pairing is a subcomplex G of C_*M\otimes C_*M. We prove that G is a "full" subcomplex, that is, the inclusion of G in C_*M \otimes C_*M is a quasi-isomorphism. An analogous result is true for the domain of the iterated intersection pairing. Using this, we show that the intersection pairing gives C_*M a structure of partially defined commutative DGA, which in particular implies that C_*M is canonically quasi-isomorphic to an E_\infty chain algebra. An erratum is attached whic…
We show that standard cyclic actions on Brieskorn homology 3-spheres with non-empty fixed set do not extend smoothly to any contractible smooth 4-manifold it may bound. The quotient of any such extension would be an acyclic $4$-manifold with boundary a related Brieskorn homology sphere. We briefly discuss well known invariants of homology spheres that obstruct acyclic bounding 4-manifolds, and then use a method based on equivariant Yang-Mills moduli spaces to rule out extensions of the actions.
We show that the algebraic intersection number of Scott and Swarup for splittings of free groups coincides with the geometric intersection number for the sphere complex of the connected sum of copies of $S^2\times S^1$.
We describe all possible topological structures of Morse-Smale flows without closed trajectories on a three-dimensional sphere, which have two sources, two sinks, one saddle of Morse index 1, one saddle of Morse index 2, and no more than 10 saddle connections. To classify such flows, a generalized Heegaard diagram or Pr-diagram is used, which in this case consists of a sphere and two closed curves, the intersection points of which correspond to saddle connections. We have found all possible, up to homeomorphism, ways to embed two circles in a 2-sphere with no more than 10 points of transversal…
The goal of this article is to establish estimates involving the Yamabe minimal volume, mixed minimal volume and some topological invariants on compact 4-manifolds. In addition, we provide topological sphere theorems for compact submanifolds of spheres and Euclidean spaces, provided that the full norm of the second fundamental form is suitably bounded.
We show how the periodicity of a homology sphere is reflected in the Reshetikhin-Turaev-Witten invariants of the manifold. These yield a criterion for the periodicity of a homology sphere.
In this paper we present a way of computing a lower bound for genus of any smooth representative of a homology class of positive self-intersection in a smooth four-manifold $X$ with second positive Betti number $b_2^+(X)=1$. We study the solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations on the cylindrical end manifold which is the complement of the surface representing the class. The result can be formulated as a form of generalized adjunction inequality. The bounds obtained depend only on the rational homology type of the manifold, and include the Thom conjecture as a special case. We generalize this…
