arXiv research

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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

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

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…

New knots bound rational homology balls, using Alexander polynomials.

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 study explores pinwheels in symplectic surfaces and non-squeezing of rational homology balls.

Knots generating infinite subgroup bound rational homology balls.

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

Characterizes symplectic rational homology ball fillings of Seifert fibered spaces.

New balls smoothly fit in CP² but not symplectically.

We classify connected sums of three-dimensional lens spaces which smoothly bound rational homology balls. We use this result to determine the order of each lens space in the group of rational homology 3-spheres up to rational homology cobordisms, and to determine the concordance order of each 2-bridge knot.

The rational homology balls $B_n$ appeared in Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down construction [FS] and were subsequently used (e.g. Fintushel-Stern[FS4], Park[Pa2]) to construct exotic smooth manifolds with small Euler numbers. We show that a large class of smooth 4-manifolds have all of the $B_n$'s for odd $n \g…

Given a rational homology sphere which bounds rational homology balls, we investigate the complexity of these balls as measured by the number of 1-handles in a handle decomposition. We use Casson-Gordon invariants to obtain lower bounds which also lead to lower bounds on the fusion number of ribbon knots. We use Levine…

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.

Classifies torus bundles bounding 4-manifolds with rational homology.

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

Classifies 4-manifolds with genus one horizontal handlebody decomposition.

The paper proves that rational concordance of double twist knots is reciprocal.

New 4-manifold accounts for rationally slice knots.

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…

In this paper we prove the existence of rational homology balls smoothly embedded in regular neighborhoods of certain linear chains of smooth $2$-spheres by using techniques from minimal model program for 3-dimensional complex algebraic variety.

We present complete classifications of links in the 3-sphere modulo framed and twisted Whitney towers in a rational homology 4-ball. This provides a geometric characterization of the vanishing of the Milnor invariants of links in terms of Whitney towers. Our result also says that the higher order Arf invariants, which …

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 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…

Alternating links bound rational homology balls if their chessboard lattice is cubiquitous.

In this note we study the Seifert rational homology spheres with two complementary legs, i.e. with a pair of invariants whose fractions add up to one. We give a complete classification of the Seifert manifolds with 3 exceptional fibers and two complementary legs which bound rational homology balls. The result translate…

The study confirms the non-existence of rational homology ball symplectic fillings for certain Brieskorn spheres.

New findings on knots that are both topologically and rationally slice.

The article classifies cubiquitous sublattices and applies them to branched covers.

We apply Donaldson's theorem on the intersection forms of definite 4--manifolds to characterize the lens spaces which smoothly bound rational homology 4--dimensional balls. Our result implies, in particular, that every smoothly slice 2--bridge knot is ribbon, proving the ribbon conjecture for 2--bridge knots.

We exhibit an infinite family of rational homology balls which embed smoothly but not symplectically in the complex projective plane. We also obtain a new lattice embedding obstruction from Donaldson's diagonalisation theorem, and use this to show that no two of our examples may be embedded disjointly.

The study classifies $χ-$slice pretzel links and Seifert fiber spaces.

It is known that for coprime integers $p>q\geq 1$, the lens space $L(p^2,pq-1)$ bounds a rational ball, $B_{p,q}$, arising as the 2-fold branched cover of a (smooth) slice disk in $B^4$ bounding the associated 2-bridge knot. Lekilli and Maydanskiy give handle decompositions for each $B_{p,q}$. Whereas, Yamada gives an …

Let $X$ be any rational ruled symplectic four-manifold. Given a symplectic embedding $ι:B_{c}\into X$ of the standard ball of capacity $c$ into $X$, consider the corresponding symplectic blow-up $\tX_ι$. In this paper, we study the homotopy type of the symplectomorphism group $\Symp(\tX_ι)$, simplifying and extending t…

Flexible knot construction for low genus surfaces.

New knots show linear independence in slice concordance.

Graph manifolds' Thurston norms are sums of linear functionals, and every such norm can be realized.

Let $V$ be a regular neighborhood of a negative chain of $2$-spheres (i.e. exceptional divisor of a cyclic quotient singularity), and let $B_{p,q}$ be a rational homology ball which is smoothly embedded in $V$. Assume that the embedding is simple, i.e. the corresponding rational blow-up can be obtained by just a sequen…

Smooth 4-manifolds have simple horizontal decompositions.

Paper finds new ball quotients from curve products.

We study the symplectic topology of some finite algebraic quotients of the An Milnor fibre which are diffeomorphic to the rational homology balls that appear in Fintushel and Stern's rational blowdown construction. We prove that these affine surfaces have no closed exact Lagrangian submanifolds by using the already ava…

We show that for rational surface singularities with odd determinant the mu-bar invariant defined by W. Neumann is an obstruction for the link of the singularity to bound a rational homology 4-ball. We identify the mu-bar invariant with the corresponding correction term in Heegaard Floer theory.