Questions tagged [surgery-theory]
In geometric topology, surgery theory is used to produce one finite-dimensional manifold from another in a 'controlled' way. Originally developed for differentiable (smooth) manifolds, surgery techniques also apply to piecewise linear and topological manifolds. Surgery refers to cutting out parts of the manifold and replacing it with a part of another manifold, matching up along the cut or boundary. This is related to handlebody decompositions.
98 questions
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On the degeneration of the elliptic surface $E(n)$
The following matter should be widely known (if true). I am sorry for my ignorance!
For the natural $n$, let $E(n)$ be the corresponding elliptic surface.
In the analytic world, there exists a well-...
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Does there exist a Dehn filling of an irreducible 3-manifold with toroidal boundaries which is still irreducible?
Let $M$ be a compact, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold with incompressible toroidal boundary (there might be more than one boundary component). Is it always possible to choose appropriate slopes on ...
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Dehn surgery on $RP^2 \times S^1$
A standard example of Dehn surgery is obtaining $S^3$ from $S^2 \times S^1$. Consider a unknot $L$ wrapping the non-trivial cycle $S^1$ in $S^2 \times S^1$. We drill out a tubular neighborhood $T_{L} $...
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Possible Euler characteristics of manifolds with tangential structures
Let $p:B\to BO$ be a fibration. We say that a manifold has a $B$-structure if its stable tangent bundle lifts to $B$. I am interested in the question of whether there exists, for a given even ...
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Finding inverses of certain elements in the set of normal invariants of a smooth manifold
Let, $V$ denote the Stiefel manifold of 2-frames $V_{10,2}$ . Consider the the map $S_\text{diff} (V) \xrightarrow{\eta} N_\text{diff} (V) $ in the surgery exact sequence of a smooth manifold. . ...
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Higher dimensional Seifert surfaces and link numbers of higher knots
In 3-manifold topology, the notion of Seifert surface is well known. It is then used to define link numbers of knots.
Question: Consider embedding $N^n \rightarrow M^{2n+1}$ of n-dimensional manifold $...
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Effect of a Lutz twist on Euler number
I already asked this question on the Math Stack Exchange but did not get an answer.
I am currently working through Geiges proof of the Martinet-Lutz theorem, which can be
found here, and am trying to ...
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Tangential normal invariant isomorphism
Recently, I was reading the paper "Finite Group Actions on Kervaire Manifold" by Crowley, Hambolton. But I am having problem understanding a definition. Here it is,
In page 15-16 they are ...
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Surgery along knots and connected sum
Denote $S^3_{p/q}(K)$ by performing $p/q$-surgery along a knot $K$ in $S^3$.
Let $K$ and $J$ be two arbitrary oriented non-trivial knots in $S^3$. Is there a nice relation between surgery on the ...
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Gluing a manifold along its boundary, via chain complexes
Given closed oriented $n$-manifolds $M, M', M''$ and bordisms $W, W'$ with $\partial W = M \sqcup - M'$ and $\partial W' = M' \sqcup - M''$, we can collar-glue them to obtain a bordism from $M$ to $M''...
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On the proof of the surgery step in Wall's book
This question regards a part of the proof of the so called surgery step, in Wall's book "surgery on compact manifolds", Theorem 1.1.
Setting
$M^m$ smooth manifold, $X$ CW complex, $\phi :M\...
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Regarding the surgery construction in "A procedure for killing homotopy groups of differentiable manifolds" by Milnor
In the first section of "A procedure for killing homotopy groups of differentiable manifolds", Milnor gives the surgery construction as follows. Let $W$ be an $n=p+q+1$ dimensional manifold. ...
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Roadmap for L-Theory
Background: I spent sometime reading about algebraic K-theory and started reading research papers on the subject with relative facility at least I do understand constructions, statements of the ...
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4-manifold obtained from a ribbon disk exterior by attaching a 2-handle is simply-connected if its boundary is a homology sphere
I am reading Lemma 2.1 of this paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.12587.pdf) and I can't see why $W$ is simply-connected. Here is the situation:
Let $K$ be a ribbon knot in $S^3$; it bounds a ribbon ...
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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 ...
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A question on the proof of Theorem 1 in Milnor's "Killing Homotopy Groups"
Theorem 1 of Milnor's paper "A procedure for killing homotopy groups of differentiable manifolds" states that two manifolds are in the same cobordism class if and only if they can be ...
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Normal invariants
I am having a hard time finding examples of computations of normal invariants of surgery theory (or more generally the set of homotopy classes of maps $[X,G/O]$). Does anybody have good references?
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Generalized Schoenflies - formalizing step in proof?
[Sorry if the level here is wrong, I asked this on math.SE, but even with a bounty, it got no attention.]
I am currently reading Hatcher's 3-Manifolds notes, the part proving Alexander's theorem, ...
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Is spin cobordism an invariant for surgery of codimension $q\ge3$?
Recall that a surgery of codimension $q$ on an $n$-manifold $X$ is a modification of $X$ of the following type. Let $\Sigma^{n-q}\subset X$ be a smoothly embedded $(n-q)$-sphere with a trivialized ...
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Survey or good reference of taut foliations
I am interested in the topology of foliations.
In particular, I want to understand taut foliations, or projectively Anosov flows, and Anosov flows.
I guess that
A. Candel and L. Conlon, Foliations I (...
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L-theory of additive category
Reading some articles in the field, I found the following statement:
Proposition:
Let $\mathcal{B}$ be an additive category and $\mathcal{A}$ a full additive subcategory of
$\mathcal{B}$. If $\mathcal{...
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Dehn surgery along primitive knot in 3-dimensional handlebody
I'm studying the article "An alternative proof of Lickorish–Wallace theorem" (doi link)
and I got stuck in a problem.
Let $H_g$ be a 3 dimensional handlebody of genus $g$, a primate curve in ...
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Expository material on the Gromov-Lawson surgery theorem
I am looking for an expository text on the paper "The classification of simply connected
manifolds of positive scalar curvature" by Gromov and Lawson, in particular on the proof of Theorem A....
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Integral homology $S^1\times S^2$'s smoothly bounding integral homology $S^1\times B^3$'s
Suppose we are given a compact orientable 3-manifold $M$ which is an integral homology $S^1\times S^2$. Then is there a way to determine whether $M$ bounds a smooth compact orientable 4-manifold which ...
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Kind of "associativity" of certain connected sum involving both manifolds with and without boundary
Consider two compact, oriented and connected manifolds $\mathcal{M},\mathcal{N}$ with possibly non-empty connected boundaries $\partial\mathcal{M}$ and $\partial\mathcal{N}$. Now, in some project, I ...
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About connected cobordism and surgery
I need to find various ways of performing two surgeries on a collection of circles so that the resulting 2-dimensional cobordism (the trace of the surgeries) is connected.
How can I find these ? up ...
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Attaching a 2-handle to a once-twisted unlink in the boundary of the 4-ball
Consider the 3-sphere $S_3$ with an unlink loop $L$ whose tubular neighborhood is identified with the solid torus $B_2\times S_1$ with one twist, i.e., such that the image of $x\times S_1$ (where $x$ ...
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Rational surgery and attaching $2$-handles
It is well-known fact that integral Dehn surgeries on $3$-sphere $S^3$ are viewed as the result on the boundary of attaching $2$-handles $B^2 \times B^2$ to the $4$-ball $B^4$.
Is there an analogue ...
user150450
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Kirby's theorem for 4-manifolds
In dimension 3, we have the celebrated Kirby theorem: Let $L_1, L_2$ be two links in the 3-sphere $S^3$; then they surgeries along them produce homeomorphic 3-manifolds if and only if they are related ...
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Negative surgeries on negative knots
This question is two-fold.
The first question is rather specific: what are some small examples of negative surgeries on negative knots that give rise to the same 3-manifold? I know one class of ...
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Being a product - from homology to topology
The famous Kunneth formula expresses the homology of a product manifold as the tensor product of the two algebras.
Now suppose we know that a manifold $X$ has a decomposition $H_*(X) \simeq A \otimes ...
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Mapping class group and surgery theory
Given a smooth manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ and a diffeomorphism $\phi: M \to M$, we can construct a smooth cobordism of dimension $(n+1)$ from $M$ to $M$ by gluing $M \times [0,1]$ with itself by $\...
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Is the number of prime factors of 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn surgery along a link with $N$ components in $S^3$ bounded from above?
For a given $N$, is the number of prime factors of 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn surgery along a link with $N$ components in $S^3$ bounded from above?
The Two Summands Conjecture states that surgery ...
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L-theory periodicity
Let $\mathcal{A}$ be an additive category. I have two questions:
Is there a conceptual explanation why $L(\mathcal{A})$ is 4-periodic, in the sense that
$L_{i}(\mathcal{A})=L_{i+4}(\mathcal{A})$ for ...
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Vanishing of characteristic numbers vs vanishing of characteristic classes
A famous result by Thom states that Oriented Bordism classes are determined by characteristic numbers; specifically, two closed manifolds are orientedly bordant if and only if they have the same ...
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Künneth formulas/theorem for bordism groups and cobordisms?
We are familiar with Künneth theorem:
The Kunneth formula is given by $R$ as a ring, $M,M'$ as the R-modules, $X,X'$ are some chain complex. The Kunneth formula shows the cohomology of a chain ...
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Dehn surgery on $S^3$ along a Hopf link with rational surgery coefficients
Is there an exhaustive list of conditions satisfied by rational surgery coefficients assigned to the components of the Hopf link in $S^3$ such that the resulting 3-manifold by Dehn surgery acting on $...
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Are there alternate descriptions of `elementary cobordisms'?
Let $M^d$, $N^d$ be cobordant $d$-manifolds. Then $M^d \sqcup \bar{N}^d = \partial W^{d+1}$ for some $(d+1)$-manifold $W$. This cobordism can be implemented via an elementary set of 'moves' called ...
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Mapping class groups in high dimension
$\DeclareMathOperator\MCG{MCG}\DeclareMathOperator\Diff{Diff}\DeclareMathOperator\Homeo{Homeo}$Let $M$ be a $1$-connected, closed, smooth manifold with $\dim(M)>4$ and let us set $\MCG(M)=\pi_0(\...
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Surgery for algebraic varieties
I have a number of vague questions that I wasn't sure whether they are suitable to ask or not, but I decided to ask!
According to this result, any two birational varieties can be constructed by a ...
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Proofs of Kirby's theorem
Each orientable 3-manifold can be obtained by doing surgery along a framed link in the 3-sphere. Kirby's theorem says that two framed links give homeomorphic manifolds if and only if they are obtained ...
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Topological Spin manifolds in dimension 4
In his ICM Adress at Nice (Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians Nice, September, 1970, Gauthier-Villars, editeur, Paris 6 e ,1971, Volume 2, pp. 133-163.),
Robion Kirby ...
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Integer surgeries along links yielding lens spaces
Does there exist an integer $N$ such that any lens space $L(p,q)$ can be obtained by integer surgery from $S^3$ along a link $L$ with at most $N$ components?
EDIT:
I have worked out the comment by ...
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Fiber product formulae for surgery obstructions
Is there a formula for the surgery obstruction of a fiber product of maps assuming the fiber product is also a homotopy equivalence?
In more detail, suppose that $X \to Y$ and $Z \to Y$ are homotopy ...
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Integer surgery on $S^3$
I know that any compact orientable 3-manifold can be obtained from the three sphere $S^3$ by an integer surgery. I am not sure why the surgery operation is completely determined by Where we map ...
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What are these 3-manifolds from surgery?
I know that surgery on the unlink with +0 slope gives $S^2 \times S^1$ (where all the links above are embedded in $S^3$). I figured (I think) that surgery on the hopf link (with +0 on both) returns $S^...
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Visualize how the 5d Dold manifold and Wu manifold are cobordant via a 6d manifolds with boundaries
Are there simple intuitions and arguments to visualize why the following two 5-manifolds are cobordant to each other with the oriented structures? (They can be two boundaries of 6-dimensional oriented ...
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Chirality and Anti-Chirality of links in 3 and in 5 dimensions
We know there is a chiral knot which is a knot that is not equivalent to its mirror image. It is well known in the mathematical field of knot theory:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiral_knot
My ...
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A search for a sequence of $6$-manifolds
How to construct closed, orientable, smooth, simply-connected $6$-manifolds such that $H^{*}(M,\mathbb{Z}) \cong \mathbb{Z}[a]/(a^{4})$ (Where $a$ is a generator of degree 2) satisfying $p_{1}(M) = n ...
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Torus trick without surgery theory
It follows from surgery theory that in dimension $\geq 5$ every closed PL manifold homotopy equivalent to a torus has a finite cover which is PL homeomorphic to a torus. This is an important ...
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