arXiv research

Links with isotopic preimages in $S^3$ are isotopic in $RP^3$.

We construct (infinitely many) examples in all dimensions of contactomorphisms of closed overtwisted contact manifolds that are smoothly isotopic but not contact-isotopic to the identity.

Paper presents a method for identifying isotope envelopes in MALDI-ToF data.

We give examples of contactomorphisms in every dimension that are smoothly isotopic to the identity but that are not contact isotopic to the identity. In fact, we prove the stronger statement that they are not even symplectically pseudo-isotopic to the identity. We also give examples of pairs of contactomorphisms which…

Knots in 3-manifolds are equivalent if isotopic, except in special cases.

New Seifert surfaces in 4-ball differ even when pushed in.

The Nielsen Conjecture for Homeomorphisms asserts that any homeomorphism $f$ of a closed manifold is isotopic to a map realizing the Nielsen number of $f$, which is a lower bound for the number of fixed points among all maps homotopic to $f$. The main theorem of this paper proves this conjecture for all orientation pre…

Study shows hyperbolic knots' monodromy without fixed points.

The study proves conditions for hyperbolic isometries on fine curve graphs of higher genus surfaces.

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…

Let $S_n$ be a punctured Riemann spheres $\mathbf{S}^2\backslash \{x_1,..., x_n\}$. In this paper, we investigate pseudo-Anosov maps on $S_n$ that are isotopic to the identity on $S_n\cup \{x_n\}$ and have the smallest possible dilatations. We show that those maps cannot be obtained from Thurston's construction (that i…

We present a technique for the enumeration of all isotopically distinct ways of tiling a hyperbolic surface of finite genus, possibly nonorientable and with punctures and boundary. This provides a generalization of the enumeration of Delaney-Dress combinatorial tiling theory on the basis of isotopic tiling theory. To a…

Consider a connected manifold of dimension at least two and the group of compactly supported diffeomorphisms that are compactly supported isotopic to the identity. This group acts $n$-transitive: Any tuple of $n$ points can be moved to any other tuple of $n$ points by a compactly supported diffeomorphism that is compac…

The study proves diffeomorphisms can be localized to simpler submanifolds.

In this paper, we develop the mathematical tools needed to explore isotopy classes of tilings on hyperbolic surfaces of finite genus, possibly nonorientable, with boundary, and punctured. More specifically, we generalize results on Delaney-Dress combinatorial tiling theory using an extension of mapping class groups to …

Example shows smooth vs topological isotopy in a 4-manifold.

Proof of existence and uniqueness of weighted Voronoi-Delaunay on polyhedral surfaces.

Study on manifolds that map to lower dimensions with specific critical points.

Let $f$ be a Morse function on a smooth compact surface $M$ and $\mathcal{S}'(f)$ be a group of $f$-preserving diffeomorphisms of $M$ which are isotopic to the identity map. Let also $G(f)$ be a group of automorphisms of the graph of $f$ induced by elements from $\mathcal{S}'(f)$, and $Δ'$ be a subgroup of $\mathcal{S…

The mapping class group $MCG(Σ_g)$ of a surface of genus $g$ has a long-history in topology and group theory. More recently, the mapping class group $MCG(V_g)$ of a handlebody $V_g$ of genus $g$ has become an interesting topic in the study of $3$ manifolds, largely thanks to Heegaard splitting. While $MCG(V_g)$ can be …

Unique simple spines of homotopy 2-spheres are shown to be ambiently isotopic.

New example of non-smooth isotopy after stabilization in 4-manifolds.

Let $M$ be a compact surface and $P$ be either $\mathbb{R}$ or $S^1$. For a smooth map $f:M\to P$ and a closed subset $V\subset M$, denote by $\mathcal{S}(f,V)$ the group of diffeomorphisms $h$ of $M$ preserving $f$, i.e. satisfying the relation $f\circ h = f$, and fixed on $V$. Let also $\mathcal{S}'(f,V)$ be its subg…

Given two Fuchsian representations $ρ_l$ and $ρ_r$ of the fundamental group of a closed oriented surface $S$ of genus $\geq 2$, we study the relation between Lagrangian submanifolds of $M_ρ=(\mathbb{H}^2/ρ_l(π_1(S)))\times (\mathbb{H}^2/ρ_r(π_1(S)))$ and $ρ$-equivariant embeddings $σ$ of $\widetilde S$ into Anti-de Sit…

The paper finds non-isotopic Legendrian unit conormal bundles in high dimensions.

A surface diffeo reversing orientation is isotopic to identity.

A $3$-$tangle$ $T$ is the disjoint union of $3$ properly embedded arcs in the unit 3-ball; it is called rational if there is a homeomorphism of pairs from $(B^3,T)$ to $(D^2\times I,\{x_1,x_2,x_3\}\times I)$. Two rational 3-tangles $T$ and $T'$ are isotopic if there is an orientation-preserving self-homeomorphism $h: (…

Here we discuss an example of topologically isotopic but smoothly non-isotopic pair of 2-spheres in a simply connected 4-manifold, which become smoothly isotopic after stabilizing by connected summing with S^2 x S^2.

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

The paper finds infinitely many 4-manifolds with non-isotopic sections.

Constructs stable maps from 3-manifolds to surfaces without cusps.

3D manifolds can map to a plane with specific curve patterns.

Using 1-twist rim surgery, we construct infinitely many smoothly embedded, orientable surfaces in the 4-ball bounding a knot in the 3-sphere that are pairwise topologically isotopic, but not ambient diffeomorphic. We distinguish the surfaces using the maps they induce on perturbed sutured Floer homology. Along the way,…

Study finds non-isotopic transverse tori in Engel manifolds.

New invariant detects more elements in 4D diffeomorphism group.

In this article, we study the smooth mapping class group of a surface S relative to a given Cantor set, that is the group of isotopy classes of orientation-preserving smooth diffeomorphisms of S which preserve this Cantor set. When the Cantor set is the standard ternary Cantor set, we prove that the subgroup consisting…

New obstructions show some 4-manifold homeomorphisms are pseudo-isotopic but not isotopic.

New ribbon disks in 4D space, non-isotopic to each other.

We construct infinite families of topologically isotopic but smoothly distinct knotted spheres in many simply connected 4-manifolds that become smoothly isotopic after stabilizing by connected summing with $S^2 \times S^2$, and as a consequence, analogous families of diffeomorphisms and metrics of positive scalar curva…

We construct infinitely many smooth oriented 4-manifolds containing pairs of homotopic, smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are not topologically isotopic, but that are equivalent by an ambient diffeomorphism inducing the identity on homology. These examples show that Gabai's recent "Generalized" 4D Lightbulb Theorem does…

We prove that there is a knot $K$ transverse to $ξ_{std}$, the tight contact structure of $S^3$, such that every contact 3-manifold $(M, ξ)$ can be obtained as a contact covering branched along $K$. By contact covering we mean a map $\varphi: M \to S^3$ branched along $K$ such that $ξ$ is contact isotopic to the liftin…

Low entropy hypersurfaces in 4D are isotopic to a sphere.

Smoothly isotopic surfaces in a 4-manifold are stable isotopic if trivial in the 2-homology.

We construct a pair of isotopic link configurations that are not thick isotopic while preserving total length.

Maps minimize periodic points for high periods, but not for low periods.

New spheres can split a 4D link in ways not possible in 3D.

New non-isotopic Seifert surfaces found in 4-ball.

We use the methods of Hedden, Juhasz, and Sarkar to exhibit a set of arborescent knots that bound large numbers of non-isotopic minimal genus spanning surfaces. In particular, we describe a sequence of prime knots K_{n} which will bound at least 2^{2n-1} non-isotopic minimal spanning surfaces of genus n.