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arXiv · 1912.13021

The trace embedding lemma and spinelessness

Kyle Hayden·Lisa Piccirillo
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Abstract

We demonstrate new applications of the trace embedding lemma to the study of piecewise-linear surfaces and the detection of exotic phenomena in dimension four. We provide infinitely many pairs of homeomorphic 4-manifolds $W$ and $W'$ homotopy equivalent to $S^2$ which have smooth structures distinguished by several formal properties: $W'$ is diffeomorphic to a knot trace but $W$ is not, $W'$ contains $S^2$ as a smooth spine but $W$ does not even contain $S^2$ as a piecewise-linear spine, $W'$ is geometrically simply connected but $W$ is not, and $W'$ does not admit a Stein structure but $W$ does. In particular, the simple spineless 4-manifolds $W$ provide an alternative to Levine and Lidman's recent solution to Problem 4.25 in Kirby's list. We also show that all smooth 4-manifolds contain topological locally flat surfaces that cannot be approximated by piecewise-linear surfaces.

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Kyle Hayden, Lisa Piccirillo. 2019-12-30. The trace embedding lemma and spinelessness. https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.13021

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