All Questions
5 questions
36
votes
2
answers
5k
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Kervaire invariant: Why dimension 126 especially difficult?
Is there any resource that might help non-experts gains some understanding of why
the Kervaire invariant problem remains open now only in dimension $126$? ($126 =2^7-2=2^{j+1}-2$;
whether $\theta_j=\...
34
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Strong Whitney embedding theorem for non-compact manifolds
$\newcommand{\RR}{\mathbb{R}}$The present question arises from some confusion on my part regarding the precise statement of the strong Whitney embedding theorem for non-compact manifolds.
The strong ...
28
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Kirby's torus trick
My basic question is: What is Kirby's torus trick and why did it solve so many problems?
I can get a glimmer of it from looking at Kirby's original paper, "Stable Homeomorphisms and the Annulus ...
11
votes
3
answers
4k
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Reference request: gluing manifolds along pieces of boundary
I've been asked for a reference for the following construction and since I didn't know one, I thought I'd ask here if anyone did.
Consider two smooth manifolds with boundary of the same dimension, $M$...
11
votes
2
answers
645
views
Local topology of Whitney stratified spaces
Let $M$ be a smooth manifold, let $\mathcal{P}$ be a Whitney stratification of $M$ and let $S\subset M$ be a stratum with closure $\overline{S}$.
Question: Does there exist an open neighborhood $U\...