Questions tagged [4-manifolds]

A smooth 4-manifold is a 4-manifold with a smooth structure. In dimension four, in marked contrast with lower dimensions, topological and smooth manifolds are quite different.

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69 views

Extend a circle action on $3$-manifolds

Let $M$ be an oriented closed $3$-manifold equipped with an effective smooth circle action. Can we have a classification of all such $M$ such that there exists a $4$-manifold $N$ with $\partial N=M$, ...
5 votes
3 answers
478 views

PD3 groups and PD4 complexes

I am interested at the moment in what groups can occur as the fundamental group of a 4-manifold (or more generally, a 4-dimensional CW complex) with prescribed conditions on the intersection form. I ...
12 votes
0 answers
210 views

Does there exist a closed 4-manifold whose $\pi_2$ contains torsion elements

Does there exist a closed 4-manifold $X$ such that $\pi_2(X)$ contains torsion elements? And, if so, does there exist a closed 4-manifold $X$ such that $\pi_2(X)\neq 0$ but $\pi_2(X)\otimes \mathbb{Q}=...
4 votes
0 answers
86 views

Is there a nontrivial ribbon knot concordance from a knot to itself?

It was conjectured by Gordon and recently proved by Agol that ribbon concordance defined a partial order on the semi group of knots. I know that this question is close related to the slice ribbon ...
3 votes
1 answer
132 views

Principal circle bundles over punctured $3$-sphere

Let $M$ be $S^3$ with $k$ disjoint open balls $D^3$ removed. Can we classify all principal circle bundles over $M$ such that the total space is simply-connected?
6 votes
1 answer
100 views

Knotted concordances of slice links

Are there any examples of a link $L$ such that: $L$ is (strongly) slice, meaning that there exists a properly embedded collection $C$ of $n=|L|$ disjoint annuli in $S^3\times [0,1]$ such that $C\cap ...
8 votes
2 answers
533 views

Presentations of exotic 4-manifolds

TLDR I want to see more examples of exotic $4$-manifold (hopefully connected, simply connected, oriented, and closed). Are there known presentations of $4$-manifolds $M$ with exotic structures, ...
6 votes
1 answer
277 views

Slice knots in 3-manifolds

Is there a nonslice knot $K\subset S^3$ that is slice in some closed oriented $3$-manifold $Y$? Here, when we say $K$ is slice in $Y$, it means that when regarded as a local knot in $Y\times\{1\}$, $K$...
9 votes
1 answer
287 views

The works of González-Acuña and Duchon from 70s and 80s

I would like to access the following two works of González-Acuña from 1970: González-Acuña, F. Dehn’s construction on knots. Bol. Soc. Mat. Mexicana (2) 15 (1970), 58–79. and González-Acuña, F. On ...
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Does the Hodge star operator determine the metric?

Let $M$ be a closed oriented smooth $4$-manifold with two metrics $g$ and $\tilde g$. Consider the Hodge star operators on $2$-forms $$ \star:\Omega^2(M) \to \Omega^2(M) \quad \text{and} \quad \tilde \...
1 vote
0 answers
48 views

Perturbation of the self-dual harmonic $2$-forms

Let $M$ be a closed oriented smooth $4$-manifold with $m=b^+_2(M)>0$. We set $\mathcal R$ to be the space of smooth metrics on $M$ and consider the following map $f:\mathcal R \to Gr(m,n)$ defined ...
13 votes
0 answers
321 views

Nonsmoothable 4-manifolds

Does there exist a closed connected nonsmoothable 4-manifold $M$ such that: $\kappa(M)=0$ (Kirby-Siebenmann invariant vanishes, hence, there is no "classical" obstruction to smoothability) ...
7 votes
2 answers
319 views

Double ($p$-fold) coverings of $B^4$ along ribbon/slice disks

I have two questions that seem to be related. I wonder if there is a user-friendly algorithm (starting from ribbon/slice presentation of knots/disks) for the construction of double (in general $p$-...
1 vote
0 answers
185 views

Local to global complexity of triangulations

Alright 3rd time's the charm - editing again to put all my cards on the table. Consider a PL $n$-manifold $M$. Define the complexity $c(M)$ of $M$ to be the minimum number of $n$-simplices needed to ...
4 votes
2 answers
451 views

$0$-surgery of slice knots and contractible manifolds

We know that if we attach $4$-dimensional $2$-handle $D^2 \times D^2$ to $S^1 \times S^2$, then we produce a contractible $4$-manifold. In this case, $S^1 \times S^2$ is $0$-surgery on the unknot. If ...
25 votes
1 answer
1k views

What can we say about the Cartesian product of a manifold with its exotic copy?

Let $M$ be a smooth oriented manifold, and let $M^E$ be an exotic copy, i.e homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $M$. Is it true that $M\times M$ is diffeomorphic to $M\times M^E$? I am ...
4 votes
1 answer
420 views

Detecting a "bad map" in Fintushel-Stern knot surgery

Background Let $X$ be a simply-connected smooth 4-manifold which contains a smoothly embedded torus $T$ with trivial normal bundle (in other words, $T^2\times D^2\subset X$). Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$...
5 votes
1 answer
273 views

Kirby diagrams of Mazur manifolds

In the 1980's, Fintushel-Stern and Fickle independently proved that Brieskorn spheres $\Sigma(2,3,25)$ and $\Sigma(3,5,19)$ bound some Mazur type contractible 4-manifolds with a single $0$-, $1$, and $...
2 votes
0 answers
114 views

Homotopy type of a 3-manifold produced via Dehn surgery?

My apologizes if this is a fairly elementary question, I am still a novice when it comes to 3-manifold topology. I am wondering the following: by Kirby calculus, we know that two links (say in $S^{3}$ ...
6 votes
0 answers
141 views

Kirby diagram of Enriques surface (as the "(1/2) K3 surface")

Not to be confused with $E(1)\cong\mathbb{C}P^2\#9\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}$, which is also known as a $\frac{1}{2}K3$ surface (in the sense that removing a neighbourhood of a regular torus fiber in $E(...
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Relation of SW and Donaldson Invariant

My question is: I am request for the reference that Is there any relationship between the Seiberg-Witten Invariant and Donaldson's Invariant? Or the relationship between Seiberg-Witten Moduli Space ...
12 votes
0 answers
386 views

Is the Lipschitz structure on $\mathbb{S}^4$ unique?

Sullivan [S] proved that on any $n$-dimensional, $n\neq 4$, topological manifold there is a unique Lipschitz structure. Although it is generally accepted result, it seems that the proof lacks some ...
2 votes
0 answers
423 views

What are some of the big open problems in $4$-manifold theory?

I've recently been studying some Manifold Theory and got very interested in their topological as well as geometric properties. From my understanding of the current literature, most the big and ...
4 votes
1 answer
392 views

4-manifold $M$ with intersection form of Leech lattice

Do we know any 4-manifold $M$ with intersection form of rank-24 Leech lattice? Is $M$ smooth? Differentiable to which $n$-order? Can $M$ be obtained by any surgery on 3 copies of E8 4-manifolds with ...
8 votes
2 answers
328 views

Open book decompositions in dimension 4

The question about the existence of open book decompositions for a closed oriented $n$-dimensional manifold seems to be answered in all dimensions except dimension $4$, where as far as I can tell the ...
5 votes
1 answer
248 views

0-surgery on a fibered hyperbolic ribbon knot

Does there exist a fibering hyperbolic ribbon knot such that the 0 surgery is exceptional? If so does there exist such an example where the result of 0-surgery is Seifert fibered? I tried looking at ...
2 votes
0 answers
92 views

Chern number of positive spinor bundle

What is the second chern number $c_2(V_+)$ of the positive spinor bundle on a 4-manifold, in particular $S^4$? Why is it that $V_+$ is the same as the quaternion line-bundle? Thanks,
3 votes
1 answer
162 views

Do we have $d(P_{+}(\omega\wedge \theta))=d_{+}\omega\wedge \theta-\omega\wedge d_{+}\theta$ on a self-dual manifold?

Let $(X, g)$ be a smooth, oriented, Riemannian 4-diemnsional manifold. Let $\Lambda^2$ denote the bundle of 2-forms on $X$. Then the Hodge-star operator decomposes $\Lambda^2$ into the space of self-...
7 votes
1 answer
307 views

Does Freedman's disk embedding theorem extend to infinitely many immersed disks?

I'm referring to a statement of the disk embedding theorem on P17 in a book of Behrens-Kalmar-Kim-Powell-Ray, the Disk Embedding Theorem. See below. There are some new formulations, e.g., Theorem 1.2 ...
10 votes
3 answers
607 views

Doubles of 2-handlebodies

Let $X$ denote a $4$-manifold with boundary obtained by adding $k_1$ $1$-handles to $B^4$ and $k_2$ many $2$-handles to the resulting manifold i.e. $X$ is an arbitrary $4$-dimensional $2$-handlebody. ...
2 votes
1 answer
156 views

Homological restrictions on certain $4$-manifolds

I am not very familiar with the non-compact $4$-manifold theory. So I apologize if the following question is very silly. Let $X$ be a non-compact, orientable $4$ manifold that is homotopic to an ...
2 votes
0 answers
73 views

Arf invariant for characteristic surfaces in closed 4-manifolds depends on homeomorphism type

Let $X$ be a closed smooth oriented 4-manifold with $H_1(X;\Bbb Z)=0$. Then for a smoothly embedded orientable surface $F\subset X$ which is characteristic, there is a well-defined invariant $\text{...
6 votes
1 answer
298 views

"Neck cutting" and why gauge theory doesn't work on homotopy 4-spheres

I attended a talk recently and the speaker said, essentially, that gauge theory invariants are expected to never be able to detect exotic 4-spheres because they always vanish, for a reason related to ...
5 votes
1 answer
281 views

Stable torus that is not a torus [duplicate]

Let $M$ be a closed manifold such that $M\times \mathbb{S}^1$ is a torus. Is it true that $M$ is homeomorphic to a torus?
5 votes
0 answers
119 views

Can every homeomorphism of the 4-ball fixing the boundary be approximated by diffeomorphisms smoothly isotopic to the identity?

Let $B^{n}$ denote the euclidean closed ball of dimension $n$. Alexander's trick shows that every homeomorphism of $B^{n}$ fixing $\partial B^n$ is $C^{0}$-isotopic to the identity via a boundary ...
6 votes
0 answers
251 views

11/8-type inequality from Heegaard Floer theory?

Background: a well-known conjecture in $4$-dimensional topology states that if $M$ is a $4$-dimensional oriented closed spin smooth manifold, then the second Betti number of $M$ is bounded from below ...
7 votes
1 answer
248 views

Lens space bounding a topological, simply-connected 4-manifold with $b_2=1$

The following is written in section 1.6 (p.7) of this paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1010.6257.pdf. ($\cdots$) Which lens spaces bound a smooth, simply-connected 4-manifold $W$ with $b_2(W)=1$? ($\cdots$...
3 votes
1 answer
208 views

Picturing twisting of strands explicitly after blow downs

In order to simplify Kirby calculus proofs, one can use a box notation which indicates a number of full twists up to sign. In the scenario of two strands with twist boxes, it is straightforward to ...
3 votes
1 answer
251 views

A Mazur manifold bounded by $\Sigma(2,3,13)$

Using Kirby calculus, Akbulut and Kirby first analyzed that the Brieskorn sphere $\Sigma(2,3,13)$ is diffeomorphic to the following link in their famous paper: Then they switched the circles when ...
5 votes
0 answers
99 views

Standard 2-instantons on the 4-sphere under conformal transformation

It is well-known that there is a standard SU(2) 1-instanton on the 4-sphere and any 1-instanton can be obtained from the standard one by conformal transformation. Is there any explicit (family of) &...
6 votes
1 answer
374 views

Two surfaces in a 4-manifold whose algebraic intersection number is zero

Suppose $X$ is a smooth closed oriented 4-manifold, and $\Sigma_1,\Sigma_2$ are smoothly embedded compact oriented surfaces in $X$. Suppose they intersect transversally at two points with different ...
4 votes
1 answer
221 views

Homology classes in connected sum of $\Bbb CP^2$'s that can be represented by smoothly embedded spheres

Let $h=[\Bbb CP^1]\in H_2(\Bbb CP^2;\Bbb Z)$. By a theorem of Kronheimer and Mrowka (Theorem 1 of this paper: https://people.math.harvard.edu/~kronheim/thomconj.pdf), a class $nh \in H_2(\Bbb CP^2;\...
6 votes
1 answer
297 views

Homology spheres bounding homology balls but not embedding into $S^4$

Are there any examples of integer homology spheres $Y^3$ that bound smooth integer homology balls but that do not smoothly embeded into $S^4$?
2 votes
0 answers
81 views

Positivity of the intersection form [closed]

Let $M^4$ be a closed orientable smooth manifold and $$ I: H_2(M,\mathbb Z) \times H_2(M,\mathbb Z) \to \mathbb Z $$ its intersection form. If $b^+ \ge 1$, where $b^+$ denotes the number of positive ...
5 votes
1 answer
186 views

Is there a way to calculate the Froyshov $h$-invariant for Seifert homology spheres?

In 2002, by using Floer theory, Froyshov defined the $h$-invariant for intergal homology 3-spheres, which is a surjective group homomorphism $\Theta^3_{\Bbb Z}\to \Bbb Z$, where $\Theta^3_{\Bbb Z}$ is ...
2 votes
1 answer
338 views

$4$-manifold with simply connected boundary

This may be a very silly question but I could not get any counter-example. Let $M$ be a compact differential $4$-manifold with boundary $dM$. Suppose that the inclusion map induced map $\pi_1(dM) \to \...
2 votes
0 answers
192 views

$4$-manifolds with boundary homotopic to $K(G,1)$

I am not very conversant with the $3$-manifold or $4$-manifold theory. The literature I found so far related to $3$-manifold tells me that $S^1\times S^2$ is "very special". It is prime but ...
4 votes
1 answer
103 views

A neighborhood of a 2-disc $D\subset\Bbb R^4$ that tapers off towards the boundary?

I am given a PL 2-disc $D\subset\Bbb R^4$ (everything PL from here on) and I need a "neighborhood" $N\simeq B^4$ (PL-homeomorphic to a 4-ball) so that $\partial N\cap D=\partial D$. If I got ...
8 votes
1 answer
204 views

If $M$ is contractible manifold and $X\subset \partial M$, does the cone over $X$ embed in $M$?

Let $M$ be a compact contractible manifold, $X\subset\partial M$ and $C_X$ the cone over $X$. Question: Is it true that $C_X$ embeds in $M$ with its boundary $\partial C_X$ mapped to $X\subset \...
99 votes
9 answers
11k views

Theoretical physics: Why not just $\mathbb{R}^4$?

You and I are having a conversation: "Okay," I say, "I think I get it. The gauge groups we know and love arise naturally as symmetries of state spaces of particles." "...

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