arXiv research

New balls smoothly fit in CP² but not symplectically.

Study shows no smooth embeddings of rational homology balls into complex projective plane.

Characterizes symplectic rational homology ball fillings of Seifert fibered spaces.

We recently defined invariants of contact 3-manifolds using a version of instanton Floer homology for sutured manifolds. In this paper, we prove that if several contact structures on a 3-manifold are induced by Stein structures on a single 4-manifold with distinct Chern classes modulo torsion then their contact invaria…

The paper characterizes unit balls among Stein spaces with specific groups using Bergman-Einstein metrics.

We show that there are contact 3-manifolds of support genus one which admit infinitely many Stein fillings, but do not admit arbitrarily large ones. These Stein fillings arise from genus-1 allowable Lefschetz fibrations with distinct homology groups, all filling a fixed minimal genus open book supporting the boundary c…

New Stein fillings found for non-weighted homogeneous singularities.

Paper proves existence of compatible Lefschetz fibrations on 6-ball and Stein domains.

This paper describes a method to construct standard 4-balls from homotopy 4-balls in $\mathbb{C}^2$.

The paper confirms conjectures about Stein manifolds formed by quotients of the ball.

We use contact handle decompositions and a stabilization process to compute the cylindrical contact homology of a subcritical Stein-fillable contact manifold with vanishing first Chern class, and show that it is completely determined by the homology of a subcritical Stein-filling of the contact manifold.

We give an algorithm which produces infinitely many pairwise exotic Stein fillings of the same contact 3-manifolds, applying positive allowable Lefschetz fibrations over the disk. As a corollary, for a large class of Stein fillings, we realize the topological invariants (i.e. fundamental group, homology group, homology…

The paper explores conditions for homology spheres to bound acyclic smooth manifolds and symplectic fillings.

In this article, using combinatorial techniques of mapping class groups, we show that a Stein fillable integral homology $3$-sphere supported by an open book decomposition with page a $4$-holed sphere admits a unique Stein filling up to diffeomorphism. Furthermore, according to a property of deforming symplectic fillin…

In this article we give a sharp upper bound on the possible values of the Euler characteristic for a minimal symplectic filling of a tight contact structure on a lens space. This estimate is obtained by looking at the topology of the spaces involved, extending this way what we already knew from the universally tight ca…

Given a spin$^c$ rational homology sphere $(Y,\mathfrak{s})$ with $\mathfrak{s}$ self-conjugate and for which the reduced monopole Floer homology $\mathit{HM}_{\bullet}(Y,\mathfrak{s})$ has rank one, we provide obstructions to the intersection forms of its Stein fillings which are not negative definite. The proof of th…

The paper constructs new rational homology 3-spheres bounding rational homology 4-balls.

We study multi-parameter Carnot-Caratheodory balls, generalizing results due to Nagel, Stein, and Wainger in the single parameter setting. The main technical result is seen as a uniform version of the theorem of Frobenius. In addition, we study maximal functions associated to certain multi-parameter families of Carnot-…

New examples show non-locally-flat PL-disk bounds in rational homology balls but not in integer homology balls.

Large PL surfaces in homology balls can have arbitrarily high genus.

We construct a family of Stein fillable contact homology 3-spheres such that each contact structure of the family is supported by an open book with planar page, and a Stein filling of the contact manifold is of Mazur type.

Paper tackles which 3-spheres bound contractible 4-manifolds or homology 4-balls.

In this new version, we give an affirmative solution to a conjecture of Cheng proposed in 1979 which asserts that the Bergman metric of a smoothly bounded strongly pseudoconvex domain in $\mathbb{C}^n, n\geq 2,$ is Kähler-Einstein if and only if the domain is biholomorphic to the ball. We establish versions of various …

Study shows Seifert fibered spaces don't bound rational homology balls.

Fintushel and Stern showed that the Brieskorn sphere $Σ(2,3,7)$ bounds a rational homology ball, while its non-trivial Rokhlin invariant obstructs it from bounding an integral homology ball. It is known that their argument can be modified to show that the figure-eight knot is rationally slice, and we use this fact to p…

Classifies surgeries on torus knots and cables that bound rational homology balls.

The paper calculates homology and intersection pairing of branched covers using disoriented homology.

New 3-manifolds bound rational 4-balls through specific operations.

New techniques in Khovanov homology help distinguish exotic surfaces in 4-ball.

We give a complete classification of the spherical 3-manifolds that bound smooth rational homology 4-balls. Furthermore, we determine the order of spherical 3-manifolds in the rational homology cobordism group of rational homology 3-spheres. To this end, we use constraints for 3-manifolds to bound rational homology bal…

Legendrian surgery describes canonical contact structures and calculates Gompf's θ-invariant.

For an integer $n$, write $X_n(K)$ for the 4-manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to the 4-ball along the knot $K\subset S^3$ with framing $n$. It is known that if $n< \overline{\text{tb}}(K)$, then $X_n(K)$ admits the structure of a Stein domain, and moreover the adjunction inequality implies there is an upper bo…

The Farey tree helps embed rational balls and lens spaces into complex projective space.

We call an integral homology sphere $\textit{non-trivially}$ bounds a rational homology ball if it is obstructed from bounding an integral homology ball. After Fintushel and Stern's well-known example $Σ(2,3,7)$, Akbulut and Larson recently provided the first infinite families of Brieskorn spheres non-trivially boundin…

Study on contact type hypersurfaces in 4-space, proving no Brieskorn spheres can embed.

Knots generating infinite subgroup bound rational homology balls.

We study the topology of exact and Stein fillings of the canonical contact structure on the unit cotangent bundle of a closed surface $Σ_g$, where $g$ is at least 2. In particular, we prove a uniqueness theorem asserting that any Stein filling must be s-cobordant rel boundary to the disk cotangent bundle of $Σ_g$. For …

Study shows surgeries on certain knots bound rational homology 4-balls.

We give the definition of the Seiberg-Witten-Floer homology group for a homology 3-sphere. Its Euler characteristic number is a Casson-type invariant. For a four-manifold with boundary a homology sphere, a relative Seiberg-Witten invariant is defined taking values in the Seiberg-Witten-Floer homology group, these relat…

Using the Heegaard Floer homology of Ozsvath and Szabo we investigate obstructions to definite intersection pairings bounded by rational homology spheres. As an application we obtain new lower bounds for the four-ball genus of Montesinos links.

We prove that there are rational homology balls $B_p$ smoothly embedded in the $2$-handlebodies associated to certain knots. Furthermore we show that, if we rationally blow up the $2$-handlebody along the embedded rational homology ball $B_p$, then the resulting $4$-manifold cannot be obtained just by a sequence of ord…

The paper examines rational homology spheres that admit special generic maps into Euclidean spaces.

We generalise theorems of Khodorovskiy and Park-Park-Shin, and give new topological proofs of those theorems, using embedded surfaces in the 4-ball and branched double covers. These theorems exhibit smooth codimension-zero embeddings of certain rational homology balls bounded by lens spaces.

Using the relation between Khovanov homology and the Heegaard Floer homology of branched double covers, we show how Khovanov homology can be used to establish tightness of branched double covers of certain transverse knots. We give examples of several infinite families of knots whose branched covers are tight for Khova…

Study on curvature properties and Shafarevich conjecture for complex hyperbolic manifolds.

We consider the question of which Dehn surgeries along a given knot bound rational homology balls. We use Ozsváth and Szabó's correction terms in Heegaard Floer homology to obtain general constraints on the surgery coefficients. We then turn our attention to the case of integral surgeries, with particular emphasis on p…

Determines surgeries on chain links bounding rational homology balls using lattice-theoretic methods.

Classifies torus bundles bounding 4-manifolds with rational homology.