Questions tagged [kirby-calculus]

Kirby diagrams of 4-manifolds, Kirby moves and Kirby calculus, Akbulut diagrams, handle decompositions

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Kirby calculus and local moves

Every orientable 3-manifold can be obtained from the 3-sphere by doing surgery along a framed link. Kirby's theorem says that the surgery along two framed links gives homeomorphic manifolds if and ...
algori's user avatar
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Proofs of Rohlin's theorem (an oriented 4-manifold with zero signature bounds a 5-manifold)

A celebrated theorem of Rohlin states the following An oriented closed 4-manifold $M^4$ bounds an oriented 5-manifold if and only if the signature of $M^4$ is zero. Simple homological arguments ...
Bruno Martelli's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
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Given a Kirby diagram of a 4-manifold, what's its homotopy 2-type?

It's easy to derive a presentation of the fundamental group of a 4-manifold if you have a Kirby diagram: The 1-handles are generators and the 2-handles are the relations. The 3- and 4-handles, which ...
Manuel Bärenz's user avatar