arXiv research

We modify the definition of the Khovanov complex for oriented links in a thickening of an oriented surface to obtain a triply graded homological link invariant with a new homotopical grading.

This paper demonstrates a topological meaning of quandle cocycle invariants of links with respect to finite connected quandles $X$, from a perspective of homotopy theory: Specifically, for any prime $\ell$ which does not divide the type of $X$, the $\ell$-torsion of this invariants is equal to a sum of the colouring po…

Knots and links in 3-manifolds are studied by applying intersection invariants to singular concordances. The resulting link invariants generalize the Arf invariant, the mod 2 Sato-Levine invariants, and Milnor's triple linking numbers. Besides fitting into a general theory of Whitney towers, these invariants provide ob…

We fix a null-homologous, homotopically essential knot $J$ in a 3-manifold with PTFA fundamental group and study concordance of knots that are homotopic to $J$. We construct an infinite family of knots that are characteristic to $J$, and then use $L^2$-methods to show that they are not concordant to $J$.

We give three formulas expressing the Smale invariant of an immersion f of a (4k-1)-sphere into (4k+1)-space. The terms of the formulas are geometric characteristics of any generic smooth map g of any oriented 4k-dimensional manifold, where g restricted to the boundary is an immersion regularly homotopic to f in (6k-1)…

We study finite order invariants of null-homotopic immersions of a closed orientable surface into an aspherical orientable 3-manifold. We give the foundational constructions, and classify all order one invariants.

Formula found for probability of random triangles on flat tori being homotopically trivial.

Given an $m$-component link $L$ in $S^3$ ($m \ge 2$), we construct a family of links which are link homotopic, but not link isotopic, to $L$. Every proper sublink of such a link is link isotopic to the corresponding sublink of $L$. Moreover, if $L$ is an unlink then there exist links that in addition to the above prope…

Implemented Habegger-Lin algorithm for 4- and 5-component links.

Pseudodiagrams are knot or link diagrams where some of the crossing information is missing. Pseudoknots are equivalence classes of pseudodiagrams, where equivalence is generated by a natural set of Reidemeister moves. In this paper, we introduce a Gauss-diagrammatic theory for pseudoknots which gives rise to the notion…

We prove that on any closed Riemannian manifold $(M_1\times M_2,g)$, with $\rank\Hom_1(M_1)\neq0$ and $\dim(M_2)\geq2$, every isometry homotopic to the identity admits infinitely many isometry-invariant geodesics.

New method to calculate 3-manifold invariants via skew-racks.

We show that on a closed Riemannian manifold with fundamental group isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}$, other than the circle, every isometry that is homotopic to the identity possesses infinitely many invariant geodesics. This completes a recent result of the second author.

Extends homotopical theory to locally compact groups, refining their compactness properties.

We prove that any smooth foliation that admits a Riemannian foliation structure has a well-defined basic signature, and this geometrically defined invariant is actually a foliated homotopy invariant. We also show that foliated homotopic maps between Riemannian foliations induce isomorphic maps on basic Lichnerowicz coh…

The ambient framed bordism class of the connecting manifold of two consecutive critical points of a Morse-Smale function is estimated by means of a certain Hopf invariant. Applications include new examples of non-smoothable Poincare duality spaces as well as an extension of the Morse complex.

In a previous work arXiv:0903.4512, we have built an homotopical Turaev-Viro invariant and an HQFT from the universal graduation of a spherical category. In the present paper, we show that every graduation $(G,p)$ of a spherical category $\C$ defines an homotopical Turaev-Viro invariant $HTV_{\C}^{(G,p)}$ and an HQFT $…

For any complex affine reductive group G and a fixed choice of maximal compact subgroup K, we show that the G-character variety of a free group strongly deformation retracts to the corresponding K-character space, which is a real semi-algebraic set. Combining this with constructive invariant theory and classical topolo…

We give an explicit calculation of the Wu invariants for immersions of a finite graph into the plane and classify all generic immersions of a graph into the plane up to regular homotopy by the Wu invariant. This result is a generalization of the fact that two plane curves are regularly homotopic if and only if they hav…

Two welded (respectively virtual) link diagrams are homotopic if one may be transformed into the other by a sequence of extended Reidemeister moves, classical Reidemeister moves, and self crossing changes. In this paper, we extend Milnor's mu and bar mu invariants to welded and virtual links. We conclude this paper wit…

It is an open problem whether Kirk's $σ$ invariant is the complete obstruction to a link map $S^2\cup S^2\to S^4$ being link homotopically trivial. With the objective of constructing counterexamples, Li proposed a link homotopy invariant $ω$ that is defined on the kernel of $σ$ and also obstructs link nullhomotopy. We …

In the paper we describe obstructions for the existence of symplectic and Hamiltonian symplectic circle actions on closed compact manifolds in terms of Hirzebruch genera and relations between differential and homotopic invariants of such manifolds.

Edge-homotopy and vertex-homotopy are equivalence relations on spatial graphs which are generalizations of Milnor's link-homotopy. We introduce some edge (resp. vertex)-homotopy invariants of spatial graphs by applying the Sato-Levine invariant for the 2-component constituent algebraically split links and show examples…

New homotopy types and invariants defined for knots.

A $4$-move is a local operation for links consisting in replacing two parallel arcs by four half twists. At the present time, it is not known if this induces an unkotting operation for knots. Studying the Dabkowski-Sahi invariant, we prove that any invariant of knots based on the fundamental group $π_1(S^3\setminus K)$…

Link-homotopy and self Delta-equivalence are equivalence relations on links. It was shown by J. Milnor (resp. the last author) that Milnor invariants determine whether or not a link is link-homotopic (resp. self Delta-equivalent) to a trivial link. We study link-homotopy and self Delta-equivalence on a certain componen…

Techniques of gauge theory are used to define and compute an invariant of certain diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds. The invariant vanishes for any diffeomorphism which is smoothly isotopic to the identity. As an application, we give the first example of a diffeomorphism of a simply-connected 4-manifold which is homotopic…

Two links are link-homotopic if they are transformed into each other by a sequence of self-crossing changes and ambient isotopies. The link-homotopy classes of 4-component links were classified by Levine with enormous algebraic computations. We modify the results by using Habiro's clasper theory. The new classification…

It is shown that Schneiderman and Teichner's invariant $τ$ detects the example due to Kirk of a link map $f:S^2_+\cup S^2_-\to S^4$ for which the restricted map $f|S^2_+:S^2_+\to S^4-f(S^2_-)$ has vanishing Wall self-intersection but is not homotopic to an embedding.

Two link diagrams are link homotopic if one can be transformed into the other by a sequence of Reidemeister moves and self crossing changes. Milnor introduced invariants under link homotopy called $\barμ$. Nanophrases, introduced by Turaev, generalize links. In this paper, we extend the notion of link homotopy to nanop…

We prove that on closed Riemannian manifolds with infinite abelian, but not cyclic, fundamental group, any isometry that is homotopic to the identity possesses infinitely many invariant geodesics. We conjecture that the result remains true if the fundamental group is infinite cyclic. We also formulate a generalization …

We prove that, if M is a compact oriented manifold of dimension 4k+3, where k>0, such that pi_1(M) is not torsion-free, then there are infinitely many manifolds that are homotopic equivalent to M but not homeomorphic to it. To show the infinite size of the structure set of M, we construct a secondary invariant tau_(2):…

Develops Chern-Weil theory for singular foliations.

We consider surgery moves along (n+1)-component Brunnian links in compact connected oriented 3-manifolds, where the framing of the each component is 1/k for k in Z. We show that no finite type invariant of degree < 2n-2 can detect such a surgery move. The case of two link-homotopic Brunnian links is also considered. We…

By defining combinatorial moves, we can define an equivalence relation on Gauss words called homotopy. In this paper we define a homotopy invariant of Gauss words. We use this to show that there exist Gauss words that are not homotopically equivalent to the empty Gauss word, disproving a conjecture by Turaev. In fact, …

The paper develops techniques to study entropy and rigidity in RCD-spaces.

Given a group $G$ and a class of manifolds $\CC$ (e.g. symplectic, contact, Kähler etc), it is an old problem to find a manifold $M_G \in \CC$ whose fundamental group is $G$. This article refines it: for a group $G$ and a positive integer $r$ find $M_G \in \CC$ such that $π_1(M_G)=G$ and $π_i(M_G)=0$ for $1<i<r$. We th…

We classify immersions $f$ of $S^1$ in a $2$-manifold $M$ in terms of elementary invariants: the parity $S(f)$ of the number of double points of a self-transverse $C^1$-approximation of $f$, and the turning number $T(e\bar f)$ of the immersion $e\bar f:S^1\to M_f\subset\Bbb R^2$, where $\bar f$ is a lift of $f$ to the …

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concepts of homotopical smallness and closeness. These are the properties of homotopical classes of maps that are related to recent developments in homotopy theory and to the construction of universal covering spaces for non-semilocally simply connected spaces, in particular to…

We study the topology of a complete asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein manifold such that its conformal boundary has positive Yamabe invariant. We proved that all maps from such manifold into any nonpositively curved manifold are homotopically trivial. Our proof is based on a Bochner type argument on harmonic maps.

We show that Chen-Ruan cohomology is a homotopy invariant in certain cases. We introduce the notion of a T-representation homotopy, which is a stringent form of homotopy under which Chen-Ruan cohomology is invariant. We show that while hyperkahler quotients of the cotangent bundle to a complex vector space by a circle …

Innovates a three-component link homotopy invariant.

The paper solves isotopy problems on 4-manifolds and classifies symplectic structures.

In this paper we construct invariants of 3-manifolds "à la Reshetikhin-Turaev" in the setting of non-semi-simple ribbon tensor categories. We give concrete examples of such categories which lead to a family of 3-manifold invariants indexed by the integers. We prove this family of invariants has several notable features…

We show that for a large class of contact 3-manifolds the groups of Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots are canonically isomorphic. As a corollary, we obtain that the group of finite order Arnold's $J^+$-type invariants of wave fronts on a surface $F$ is isomorphic to the group of Vassiliev invariant…

Let F be a closed non-orientable surface. We classify all finite order invariants of immersions of F into R^3, with values in any Abelian group. We show they are all functions of the universal order 1 invariant that we construct as T \oplus P \oplus Q where T is a Z valued invariant reflecting the number of triple poin…

Khovanov multicurves are restricted to linear components.

This paper classifies embedded, codimension-one spheres which are null homotopic. This information is used to show that all null homotopic, immersed codimension-one spheres which are taut in the sense of Terng and Thorbergsson are actually distance spheres.