arXiv research

Contradicts claims about Poincaré complexes and homology manifolds.

An introduction to the applications of algebraic surgery to the structure theory of high-dimensional topological manifolds.

The total surgery obstruction of a finite n-dimensional Poincare complex X is an element s(X) of a certain abelian group S_n (X) with the property that for n >= 5 we have s(X) = 0 if and only if X is homotopy equivalent to a closed n-dimensional topological manifold. The definitions of S_n (X) and s(X) and the property…

It is well-known that an n-dimensional Poincaré complex $X^n$, $n \ge 5$, has the homotopy type of a compact topological $n$-manifold if the total surgery obstruction $s(X^n)$ vanishes. The present paper discusses recent attempts to prove analogous result in dimension 4. We begin by reviewing the necessary algebraic an…

Complete surgery obstructions for manifolds with finite fundamental group, disproving a conjecture.

Surgery obstructions extended to integer homology spheres using Heegaard Floer homology.

We examine surgery on a knot in $S^3$ to determine surgery obstructions to Seifert fibered integral homology spheres. We find such surgery obstructions using Heegaard Floer, Knot Floer homology and the mapping cone formula for computing Heegaard Floer homology of surgery on a knot. Here however, we take a different app…

We construct homology theories with coefficients in L-spectra on the category of ball complexes and we define products in this setting. We also obtain signatures of geometric situations in these homology groups and prove product formulae which we hope will clarify products used in the theory of the total surgery obstru…

Using the mapping cone of a rational surgery, we give several obstructions for Seifert fibered surgeries, including obstructions on the Alexander polynomial, the knot Floer homology, the surgery coefficient and the Seifert and four-ball genus of the knot.

For a 3-manifold with torus boundary admitting an appropriate involution, we show that Khovanov homology provides obstructions to certain exceptional Dehn fillings. For example, given a strongly invertible knot in S^3, we give obstructions to lens space surgeries, as well as obstructions to surgeries with finite fundam…

New quantum obstructions prevent purely cosmetic surgeries on knots.

For a fixed p, there are only finitely many elliptic 3-manifolds given by p/q-surgery on a knot in S^3. We prove this result by using the Heegaard Floer correction terms (d-invariants) to obstruct elliptic manifolds from arising as knot surgery.

The Wall surgery obstruction groups have two interesting geometrically defined subgroups, consisting of the surgery obstructions between closed manifolds, and the inertial elements. We show that the inertia group $I_{n+1}(π,w)$ and the closed manifold subgroup $C_{n+1}(π,w)$ are equal in dimensions $n+1\geq 6$, for any…

We provide a new obstruction for a rational homology 3-sphere to arise by Dehn surgery on a given knot in the 3-sphere. The obstruction takes the form of an inequality involving the genus of the knot, the surgery coefficient, and a count of L-structures on the 3-manifold, that is spin-c structures with the simplest pos…

Using Taubes' periodic ends theorem, Auckly gave examples of toroidal and hyperbolic irreducible integer homology spheres which are not surgery on a knot in the three-sphere. We give an obstruction to a homology sphere being surgery on a knot coming from Heegaard Floer homology. This is used to construct infinitely man…

The paper constructs infinitely many stably diffeomorphic but non-homotopy equivalent manifolds.

The study determines lens spaces that can be obtained from surgeries on knots in the Poincaré homology sphere.

We obtain some obstructions to existence of Legendrian surgeries between tight lens spaces. We also study Legendrian surgeries between overtwisted contact manifolds.

Study uses instanton Floer theory to obstruct knot unknotting operations.

Surgery obstruction of a normal map to a simple Poincare pair $(X,Y)$ lies in the relative surgery obstruction group $L_*(π_1(Y)\toπ_1(X))$. A well known result of Wall, the so called $π$-$π$ theorem, states that in higher dimensions a normal map of a manifold with boundary to a simple Poincare pair with $π_1(X)\congπ_…

This paper provides two obstructions to small knot complements in $S^3$ admitting hidden symmetries. The first obstruction is being cyclically commensurable with another knot complement. This result provides a partial answer to a conjecture of Boileau, Boyer, Cebanu, and Walsh. We also provide a second obstruction to a…

The paper introduces a group $LSP$ of obstructions for splitting a homotopy equivalence along a pair of submanifolds. We develop exact sequences relating the $LSP$-groups with various surgery obstruction groups for manifold triple and structure sets arising from triples of manifolds. The natural map from the surgery ob…

The study confirms that most positive 2-bridge knots up to 31 crossings do not have chirally cosmetic surgeries.

The problem of splitting a homotopy equivalence along a submanifold is closely related to the surgery exact sequence and to the problem of surgery of manifold pairs. In classical surgery theory there exist two approaches to surgery in the category of manifolds with boundaries. In the $rel \partial$ case the surgery on…

Browder-Novikov-Sullivan-Wall surgery theory investigates the homotopy types of manifolds, using a combination of algebra and topology. It is the aim of these notes to provide an introduction to the more algebraic aspects of the theory (such as the Wall surgery obstruction groups), without losing sight of the geometric…

This paper presents an alternative approach to controlled surgery obstructions. The obstruction for a degree one normal map $(f,b): M^n \rightarrow X^n$ with control map $q: X^n \rightarrow B$ to complete controlled surgery is an element $σ^c (f, b) \in H_n (B, \mathbb{L})$, where $M^n, X^n$ are topological manifolds o…

New surgery method for foliated spheres preserves key numbers.

Paper proves knots satisfy a conjecture using Jones polynomial.

Cappell and Shaneson pointed out in 1978 interesting properties of Browder - Livesay invariants which are similar to differentials in some spectral sequence. Such spectral sequence was constructed in 1991 by Hambleton and Kharshiladze. This spectral sequence is closely related to a problem of realization of elements of…

From Furuta's $\frac{10}{8}$ theorem, we derive a smooth slicing obstruction for knots in $S^3$ using a spin $4$-manifold whose boundary is $0$-surgery on a knot. We show that this obstruction is able to detect torsion elements in the smooth concordance group and find topologically slice knots which are not smoothly sl…

This thesis is concerned with the question of when the double branched cover of an alternating knot can arise by Dehn surgery on a knot in $S^3$. We approach this problem using a surgery obstruction, first developed by Greene, which combines Donaldson's Diagonalization Theorem with the $d$-invariants of Ozsv{á}th and S…

We examine certain symmetries in the deficiencies of a rational surgery on a knot in $S^3$ by comparing the $\text{Spin}^c$-structures on the rational surgery with those on a related integral surgery. We then provide an application of these symmetries in the form of a theorem that obstructs Dehn surgeries in $S^3$. Thi…

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…

New Heegaard Floer homology findings block chirally cosmetic surgeries.

In this paper we prove that one can find surgeries arbitrarily close to infinity in the Dehn surgery space of the figure eight knot complement for which some immersed totally geodesic surface compresses.

Proves Gromov's conjecture on total mean curvature using surgery and positive mass theorems.

Given an L-space knot we show that its Upsilon function is the Legendre transform of a counting function equivalent to the d-invariants of its large surgeries. The unknotting obstruction obtained for the Upsilon function is, in the case of L-space knots, contained in the d-invariants of large surgeries. Generalizations…

The Cabling Conjecture states that surgery on hyperbolic knots in $S^3$ never produces reducible manifolds. In contrast, there do exist hyperbolic knots in some lens spaces with non-prime surgeries. Baker constructed a family of such hyperbolic knots and posed a conjecture that his examples encompass all hyperbolic kno…

Using the equivalence between the renormalized Euler characteristic of Ozsvath and Szabo, and the Turaev torsion normalized by the Casson-Walker invariant, we make calculations for $S^3_{p/q}(K)$. An alternative proof of a theorem by Ozsváth and Szabó on $L$-space surgery obstructions is provided.

This paper completely answers the question of when contact (r)-surgery on a Legendrian knot in the standard contact structure on the 3-sphere yields a symplectically fillable contact manifold for r in (0,1]. We also give obstructions for other positive r and investigate Lagrangian fillings of Legendrian knots.

Wall's finiteness obstruction is an algebraic K-theory invariant which decides if a finitely dominated space is homotopy equivalent to a finite CW complex. The object of this survey is to describe the invariant (which was first formulated in 1965) and some of its many applications to the surgery classification of manif…

We give a geometric obstruction to the non-negativity of the sectional curvature in the total spaces of certain Riemannian submersions with totally geodesic fibers; applications of this obstruction to several examples are given.

If a knot $K$ in $S^3$ admits a pair of truly cosmetic surgeries, we show that the surgery slopes are either $\pm 2$ or $\pm 1/q$ for some value of $q$ that is explicitly determined by the knot Floer homology of $K$. Moreover, in the former case the genus of $K$ must be two, and in the latter case there is bound relati…

We use an algorithm by Ozsvath and Szabo to find closed formulae for the ranks of the hat version of the Heegaard Floer homology groups for non-zero Dehn surgeries on knots in the 3-sphere. As applications we provide new bounds on the number of distinct ranks of the Heegaard Floer groups a Dehn surgery can have. These …

Let $M^3$ be a 3-dimensional manifold with fundamental group $π_1(M)$ which contains a quaternion subgroup $Q$ of order 8. In 1979 Cappell and Shaneson constructed a nontrivial normal map $f\colon M^3\times T^2\to M^3\times S^2$ which cannot be detected by simply connected surgery obstructions along submanifolds of co…

K-area is an invariant for Riemannian manifolds introduced by Gromov as an obstruction to the existence of positive scalar curvature. However in general it is difficult to determine whether K-area is finite or not. though the definition of K-area is quite natural. In this paper, we study how the invariant changes under…

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

We study 4-dimensional homology cobordisms without 3-handles, showing that they interact nicely with Thurston geometries, character varieties, and instanton and Heegaard Floer homologies. Using these, we derive obstructions to such cobordisms. As one example of these obstructions, we generalize other recent results on …