arXiv research

The paper constructs homotopically non-trivial spheres in complexified spaces.

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

Algorithms find second and third shortest non-trivial closed walks on surfaces.

We construct homotopically non-trivial maps from the unit m-sphere to the unit (m-1)-sphere with arbitrarily small k-dilation for each k greater than (m + 1)/2. We prove that homotopically non-trivial maps from the unit m-sphere to the unit (m-1)-sphere cannot have arbitrarily small k-dilation for k less than or equal …

We construct homotopically non-trivial maps from S^m to S^n with arbitrarily small 3-dilation for certain pairs (m,n). The simplest example is m=4, n=3. Other examples include arbitrarily large values of m and n. We show that a homotopy class in pi_7(S^4) can be represented by maps with arbitrarily small 4-dilation if …

We give a complete characterization of those essential simple loops on 2-bridge spheres of 2-bridge links which are null-homotopic in the link complements. By using this result, we describe all upper-meridian-pair-preserving epimorphisms between 2-bridge link groups.

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…

We introduce the secondary Stiefel-Whitney class $\tilde w_2$ of homotopically trivial diffeomorphisms and show that a homotopically trivial symplectomorphism of a ruled 4-manifold is isotopic to identity if and only if the class $\tilde w_2$ vanishes. Using this, we give a detailed description of the combinatorial str…

A link in the 3-sphere is homotopically trivial, according to Milnor, if its components bound disjoint maps of disks in the 4-ball. This paper concerns the question of what spaces give rise to the same class of homotopically trivial links when used in place of disks in an analogous definition. We show that there are 4-…

We prove that a circle bundle over a closed oriented aspherical manifold with hyperbolic fundamental group admits a self-map of absolute degree greater than one if and only if it is virtually trivial. This generalizes in every dimension the case of circle bundles over hyperbolic surfaces, for which the result was known…

The unknot U in S^4 has non-unique smooth spanning 3-balls up to isotopy fixing U. Equivalently there are properly embedded non-separating 3-balls in S^1xB^3 not properly isotopic to 1xB^3. More generally there exist non-separating 3-spheres in S^1xS^3 not isotopic to 1xS^3 and non trivial elements of π_0 Diff_0(S^1xS^…

We show that the center of the Goldman algebra associated to a closed oriented hyperbolic surface is trivial. For a hyperbolic surface of finite type with nonempty boundary, the center consists of closed curves which are homotopic to boundary components or punctures.

This paper has been withdrawn due to an error in the proof. The paper implicitly assumed that every homotopically trivial knot is related to the unknot by negative crossings, which is false (as was pointed out to the author by Peter Ozsvath).

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 …

We prove the existence of exotic but homotopically trivial contact structures on spheres of dimension 8k-1. Together with previous results of Eliashberg and the second author this establishes the existence of such structures on all odd-dimensional spheres (of dimension at least 3).

Gluck twists on spheres yield equivalent 4-manifolds under certain conditions.

We show that every good boundary link with a pair of derivative links on a Seifert surface satisfying a homotopically trivial plus assumption is freely slice. This subsumes all previously known methods for freely slicing good boundary links with two or more components, and provides new freely slice links.

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.

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…

A C_n-move is a local move on links defined by Habiro and Goussarov, which can be regarded as a `higher order crossing change'. We use Milnor invariants with repeating indices to provide several classification results for links up to C_n-moves, under certain restrictions. Namely, we give a classification up to C_4-move…

New homotopy types and invariants defined for knots.

Dunfield-Garoufalidis and Boyer-Zhang proved that the A-polynomial of a nontrivial knot in $S^{3}$ is nontrivial. In this paper, we use holonomy perturbations to prove the non-triviality of the A-polynomial for a nontrivial, null-homotopic knot in an irreducible 3-manifold. Also, we give a strong constraint on the A-po…

The paper creates non-isotopic but homotopic diffeomorphisms in 4-manifolds.

Study of area minimizing surfaces in homotopy classes of maps.

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…

Geometric trick simplifies link homotopy and concordance.

We study Milnor fibers of complexified real line arrangements. We give a new algorithm computing monodromy eigenspaces of the first cohomology. The algorithm is based on the description of minimal CW-complexes homotopic to the complements, and uses the real figure, that is, the adjacency relations of chambers. It enabl…

We provide explicit, simple, geometric formulas for free involutions rho of Euclidean spheres that are not conjugate to the antipodal involution. Therefore the quotient S^n/rho is a manifold that is homotopically equivalent but not diffeomorphic to RP^n. We use these formulas for constructing explicit non-trivial eleme…

For a smooth manifold $M$ we define the Teichmüller space $\cT(M)$ of all Riemannian metrics on $M$ and the Teichmüller space $\cT^ε(M)$ of $ε$-pinched negatively curved metrics on $M$, where $0\leqε\leq\infty$. We prove that if $M$ is hyperbolic the natural inclusion $\cT^ε(M)\hookrightarrow\cT(M)$ is, in general, not…

This paper is devoted to rigidity of smooth bundles which are equipped with fiberwise geometric or dynamical structure. We show that the fiberwise associated sphere bundle to a bundle whose leaves are equipped with (continuously varying) metrics of negative curvature is a topologically trivial bundle when either the ba…

We give two applications of the 2-Engel relation, classically studied in finite and Lie groups, to the 4-dimensional topological surgery conjecture. The A-B slice problem, a reformulation of the surgery conjecture for free groups, is shown to admit a homotopy solution. We also exhibit a new collection of universal surg…

In this paper we prove that for all $n=4k-2$, $k\ge2$ there exists a closed smooth complex hyperbolic manifold $M$ with real dimension $n$ having non-trivial $π_1(\mathcal{T}^{<0}(M))$. $\mathcal{T}^{<0}(M)$ denotes the Teichmüller space of all negatively curved Riemannian metrics on $M$, which is the topological quoti…

Maps between positively curved manifolds with non-increasing area are rigid.

The following inequality \cat X\le \cat Y+\lceil\frac{hd(X)-r}{r+1}\rceil holds for every locally trivial fibration between $ANE$ spaces $f:X\to Y$ which admits a section and has the $r$-connected fiber where $hd(X)$ is the homotopical dimension of $X$. We apply this inequality to prove that \cat X\le \lceil\frac{\dim …

Suppose M is a noncompact connected PL 2-manifold and let H(M)_0 denote the identity component of the homeomorphism group of M with the compact-open topology. In this paper we classify the homotopy type of H(M)_0 by showing that {\cal H}(M)_0 has the homotopy type of the circle if M is the plane, an open or half open a…

We give geometric formulae which enable us to detect (completely in some cases) the regular homotopy class of an immersion with trivial normal bundle of a closed oriented 3-manifold into 5-space. These are analogues of the geometric formulae for the Smale invariants due to Ekholm and the second author. As a corollary, …

Let $h:X \to Y$ be a homeomorphism between hyperbolic surfaces with finite topology. If $h$ is homotopic to a holomorphic map, then every closed geodesic in $X$ is at least as long as the corresponding geodesic in $Y$, by the Schwarz Lemma. The converse holds trivially when $X$ and $Y$ are disks or annuli, and it holds…

Authors prove de Rham cohomology of Poisson and Jacobi manifolds is trivial.

Calculates the transient number of knots using homology groups.

We investigate periodic diffeomorphisms of non-compact aspherical manifolds (and orbifolds) and describe a class of spaces that have no homotopically trivial periodic diffeomorphisms. Prominent examples are moduli spaces of curves and aspherical locally symmetric spaces with non-vanishing Euler characteristic. In the i…

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…

The paper constructs new non-trivial harmonic maps into higher-dimensional target manifolds.

We describe a construction of geometric U-folds compatible with a non-trivial extension of the global formulation of four-dimensional extended supergravity on a differentiable spin manifold. The topology of geometric U-folds depends on certain flat fiber bundles which encode how supergravity fields are globally glued t…

Theorems adapted for prequantum systems, showing symplectomorphism and gauge transformation.

New invariant measures doubly slice links, disproving previous bounds.

This paper shows hypercommutative algebras on Calabi-Yau manifolds are formal.

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.

In this article, we prove that on any compact spin manifold of dimension m congruent 0,6,7 mod 8, there exists a metric, for which the associated Dirac operator has at least one eigenvalue of multiplicity at least two. We prove this by catching the desired metric in a subspace of Riemannian metrics with a loop that is …