arXiv research

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…

Study weak conjugacy in surface homeomorphisms.

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

Study on topological pseudo-isotopies of 4-manifolds, proving some cases and finding counterexamples.

The study constructs examples of pseudo-isotopic but not isotopic 4-manifold diffeomorphisms.

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…

New homeomorphism found in Klein bottle group.

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

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.

The paper explores the transitivity of orbifold diffeomorphisms.

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…

New invariant shows Dehn twist on connected sum of homology tori is not isotopic to identity.

This paper proves that handlebody homeomorphisms are isotopic to identity.

Smoothly isotopic 3-discs in 4-sphere become identical after 5-dimensional push.

We give a proof of the Neilsen-Thurston classification theorem of a homeomorphism f of a standard surface of finite type as either periodic, pseudo-Anosov, or reducible. In the periodic case, we show that there exists an integer n>0 such that f is isotopic to h with h^n isotopic to the identity. This is the weaker vers…

Smooth orbit equivalence proves metric equivalence for geodesic flows.

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

The study examines the realizability of a 4-manifold invariant for homeomorphisms.

The study proves diffeomorphisms can be localized to simpler submanifolds.

Unique 3-balls in S^4 can be non-isotopic.

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

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

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…

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

Improved proofs for topological and smooth pseudo-isotopies of simply connected 4-manifolds.

A surface diffeo reversing orientation is isotopic to identity.

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…

Given a self-diffeomorphism h of a closed, orientable surface S and an embedding f of S into a three-manifold M, we construct a mutant manifold N by cutting M along f(S) and regluing by h. We will consider whether there are any gluings such that for any embedding, the manifold and its mutant have isomorphic Heegaard Fl…

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 …

Short proof shows infinite diameter for surface diffeomorphisms.

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: (…

In this paper we prove that the space of flat metrics (nonpositively curved Euclidean cone metrics) on a closed, oriented surface is marked length spectrally rigid. In other words, two flat metrics assigning the same lengths to all closed curves differ by an isometry isotopic to the identity. The novel proof suggests a…

We show that every co--orientable taut foliation F of an orientable, atoroidal 3-manifold admits a transverse essential lamination. If this transverse lamination is a foliation G, the pair F,G are the unstable and stable foliation respectively of an Anosov flow. Otherwise, F admits a pair of transverse very full genuin…

Geometrically, the first Betti number of orbits is linked to the Kronrod-Reeb graph.

We prove the existence of a minimal diffeomorphism isotopic to the identity between two hyperbolic cone surfaces $(Σ,g_1)$ and $(Σ,g_2)$ when the cone angles of $g_1$ and $g_2$ are different and smaller than $π$. When the cone angles of $g_1$ are strictly smaller than the ones of $g_2$, this minimal diffeomorphism is u…

We determine all the normal subgroups of the group of C^r diffeomorphisms of R^n, r = 1,2,...,infinity, except when r=n+1 or n=4, and also of the group of homeomorphisms of R^n (r=0). We also study the group A_0 of diffeomorphisms of an open manifold M that are isotopic to the identity. If M is the interior of a compac…

This paper constructs exotic diffeomorphisms on reducible 4-manifolds with odd b+.

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…

Anosov surfaces with same length spectrum are isometric.

Example of non-smooth isotopy using K3 surfaces.

We prove that torsion-free G_2 structures are (weakly) dynamically stable along the Laplacian flow for closed G_2 structures. More precisely, given a torsion-free G_2 structure $\varphi$ on a compact 7-manifold, the Laplacian flow with initial value cohomologous and sufficiently close to $\varphi$ will converge to a to…

Metrics are isometric for certain Anosov magnetic systems.

We examine open books with powers of fibered Dehn twists as monodromy. The resulting contact manifolds can be thought of as Boothby-Wang orbibundles over symplectic orbifolds. Using the mean Euler characteristic of equivariant symplectic homology we can distinguish these contact manifolds and hence show that some fiber…

Study shows groups can act on torus without extending to 3-manifold.

In his 1992 article on generating functions Viterbo constructed a bi-invariant metric on the group of compactly supported Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of R^2n. Using the set-up of arXiv:0901.3112 we extend the Viterbo metric to the group of compactly supported contactomorphisms of R^2n x S^1 isotopic to the identity.…

We prove that for any infinite-type orientable surface S there exists a collection of essential curves Γ in S such that any homeomorphism that preserves the isotopy classes of the elements of Γ is isotopic to the identity. The collection Γ is countable and has infinite complement in C(S), the curve complex of S. As a c…

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…

Let $M$ and $N$ be two closed $C^{\infty}$ manifolds and let $\text{Diff}_c(M)$ denote the group of $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity. We prove that any (discrete) group homomorphism between $\text{Diff}_c(M)$ and $\text{Diff}_c(N)$ is continuous. We also show that a non-trivial group homomorphism $…