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Ian Agol
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As I'm sure you're awarestated, your question is equivalent to the existence of sucha large exotic 4-ball (a smooth $D^4$ which cannot be smoothly embedded into $\mathbb{R}^4_{std}$).

The existence of a flip would give rise to an exotic $S^4$, by gluing the $D^4$ at infinity using the flip diffeomorphism. Removing a counterexample(small) standard ball from this $S^4$ gives a large exotic $D^4$, since it contains a smooth submanifold $K'$ which cannot embed in $\mathbb{R}^4_{std}$.

Conversely, if you had a large exotic $D^4$, then you could adjoin a collar neighborhood of $S^3\times \mathbb{R}$ to get an exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ which has a standard end (diffeomorphic to $S^3\times \mathbb{R}$), and therefore admits a flip.

Although I'm not an expert, I'm certain that the existence of a large exotic 4-dimensionalball is open (otherwise, the 4D smooth Schoenflies conjecture would imply the 4D smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So 

I think it can be safely assumedrealize that these flips arethis does not known to existanswer the spirit of your question, which is whether there is a large exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ which does not have a standard product end and which admits a flip.

As I'm sure you're aware, the existence of such a flip would give rise to a counterexample to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So I think it can be safely assumed that these flips are not known to exist.

As stated, your question is equivalent to the existence of a large exotic 4-ball (a smooth $D^4$ which cannot be smoothly embedded into $\mathbb{R}^4_{std}$).

The existence of a flip would give rise to an exotic $S^4$, by gluing the $D^4$ at infinity using the flip diffeomorphism. Removing a (small) standard ball from this $S^4$ gives a large exotic $D^4$, since it contains a smooth submanifold $K'$ which cannot embed in $\mathbb{R}^4_{std}$.

Conversely, if you had a large exotic $D^4$, then you could adjoin a collar neighborhood of $S^3\times \mathbb{R}$ to get an exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ which has a standard end (diffeomorphic to $S^3\times \mathbb{R}$), and therefore admits a flip.

Although I'm not an expert, I'm certain that the existence of a large exotic 4-ball is open (otherwise, the 4D smooth Schoenflies conjecture would imply the 4D smooth Poincare conjecture). 

I realize that this does not answer the spirit of your question, which is whether there is a large exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ which does not have a standard product end and which admits a flip.

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Ian Agol
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As I'm sure you're aware, the existence of such a flip would give rise to a counterexample to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So I think it can be safely assumed that this is an open problemthese flips are not known to exist.

As I'm sure you're aware, the existence of such a flip would give rise to a counterexample to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So I think it can be safely assumed that this is an open problem.

As I'm sure you're aware, the existence of such a flip would give rise to a counterexample to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So I think it can be safely assumed that these flips are not known to exist.

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Ian Agol
  • 68.9k
  • 3
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  • 358

As I'm sure you're aware, the existence of such a flip would give rise to a counterexample to the 4-dimensional smooth Poincare conjecture (a 4-manifold homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $S^4$). So I think it can be safely assumed that this is an open problem.