arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Valentina Bais.
For every $n \geq 4$, we demonstrate the existence of non-isotopic, smooth $(n-2)$-knots in $S^n$ with diffeomorphic traces. We give two proofs: the first by generalising the RBG link construction to all dimensions, and the second as an application of work of Plotnick. Conversely, we prove that for every $n \geq 4$, the unknot in $S^n$ is detected by the diffeomorphism type of its surgery and hence of its trace.
For every integer $n \geq 1$, we compute the cobordism groups of dihedral $n$-fold branched covers of $S^3$ with oriented and non-oriented branching sets. We show that the groups are cyclic, generated by the $n$-fold connected dihedral covers of $(2,n)$-torus links. The isomorphism types of the groups are detected using explicit cobordism invariants defined in terms of the Seifert forms on the branching sets, generalizing Cappell-Shaneson characteristic knots associated to dihedral covers.
We show that, given $d \geq 4$ and two closed connected oriented PL $4$-manifolds $M$ and $N$ such that $N$ has a handle decomposition with no $1$- and $3$-handles, there exists a $d$-fold (simple) branched covering $p \colon M \rightarrow N$ if and only if there is an isometric embedding of lattices $d \cdot I_N \hookrightarrow I_M$. Here $I_N$ and $I_M$ respectively denote the intersection lattices of $N$ and $M$. In particular, we characterize the manifolds which are branched covers of the K3 surface.
We show that every closed connected non-orientable PL $4$-manifold $X$ is a simple branched covering of $\RP^4$. We also show that $X$ is a simple branched covering of the twisted $S^3$-bundle $S^1 \simtimes S^3$ if and only if the first Stiefel--Whitney class $w_1(X)$ admits an integral lift. In both cases, the degree of the covering can be any number $d \geq 4$, provided that $d$ has the same parity of the Stiefel--Whitney number $w_1^4[X]$ in the case of $\RP^4$. Moreover, the branch set can be assumed to be non-singular if $d \geq 5$ and to have just nodal singularities if $d=4$.
We introduce a simple cut-and-paste mechanism to construct both orientable and nonorientable four-manifolds from a given initial one. This mechanism alters the fundamental group while preserving other essential topological invariants. It avoids codimension two cut-and-paste fundamental group computations and fast tracks the search for fixed-point free involutions. The mechanism proves useful to unveil novel exotic irreducible smooth structures on closed four-manifolds with finite cyclic fundamental group, which include $\Q$-homology real projective four-spaces.
Four observations compose the main results of this note. The first records the existence of a smoothly embedded 2-sphere $S$ inside $\mathbb{R} P^2\times S^2$ such that performing a Gluck twist on $S$ produces a manifold $Y$ that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the total space of the non-trivial 2-sphere bundle over the real projective plane $S(2γ\oplus \mathbb{R})$. The second observation is that there is a 5-dimensional cobordism with a single 2-handle between the 4-manifold $Y$ and a mapping torus that was used by Cappell-Shaneson to construct an exotic $\mathbb{R} P^4$. This construction of $Y$ is similar to the one of the Cappell-Shaneson homotopy 4-spheres. The third observation is that twisting an embedded real projective plane inside $Y$ produces a manifold that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the circle sum of two copies of $\mathbb{R}P^4$. Knotting phenomena of 2-spheres in non-orientable 4-manifolds that stands in glaring contrast with known phenomena in the orientable domain is pointed out in the fourth observation.
We study necessary and sufficient conditions for a 4-dimensional Lefschetz fibration over the 2-disk to admit a $\text{Pin}^{\pm}$-structure, extending the work of A. Stipsicz in the orientable setting. As a corollary, we get existence results of $\text{Pin}^{+}$ and $\text{Pin}^-$-structures on closed non-orientable 4-manifolds and on Lefschetz fibrations over the 2-sphere. In particular, we show via three explicit examples how to read-off $\text{Pin}^{\pm}$-structures from the Kirby diagram of a 4-manifold. We also provide a proof of the well-known fact that any closed 3-manifold $M$ admits a $\text{Pin}^-$-structure and we find a criterion to check whether or not it admits a $\text{Pin}^+$-structure in terms of a handlebody decomposition. We conclude the paper with a characterization of $\text{Pin}^+$-structures on vector bundles.
We present a proof of the fact that a closed orientable 4-manifold is parallelizable if and only if its second Stiefel-Whitney class, first Pontryagin class and Euler characteristics vanish. This follows from a stronger result due to Dold and Whitney on the classification of oriented sphere bundles over a 4-complex. The contribution of this note is to outline in detail an argument which is essentially due to R. Kirby, using the classification of $SO(4)$-bundles over the 4-sphere by means of their Euler and first Pontryagin classes as a main tool.
We produce examples of pairwise non-diffeomorphic closed irreducible 4-manifolds with non-trivial free abelian fundamental group of rank less than three and small Euler characteristic. These exotic smooth structures become standard after taking a connected sum with a single copy of $S^2\times S^2$. The contributions of this paper include an explicit mechanism to computate the equivariant intersection form of 4-manifolds that are obtained via torus surgeries and a new stabilization result concerning exotic smooth structures with arbitrary fundamental group.
We describe a construction procedure of infinite sets of $2$-links in closed simply connected 4-manifolds that are topologically isotopic, smoothly inequivalent and componentwise topologically unknotted. These 2-links are the first examples of such kind in the literature. The examples provided have surface and free groups as their 2-link groups. We also point out an exotic Brunnian behaviour of such families, which highlights the important role of linking in creating exotic phenomena.
In this note, we study necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a Spin $(n + 1)$-dimensional cobordism that supports a non-singular and non-degenerate pseudo-Riemannian metric of signature $(2, n - 1)$, which restricts to a non-singular time-orientable Lorentzian metric on its boundary. The corresponding cobordism groups are computed.
We give a new elementary proof of the parallelizability of closed orientable 3-manifolds. We use as the main tool the fact that any such manifold admits a Heegaard splitting.