Modifying a branched surface to carry a foliation

We consider C¹ nonsingular flows on a closed 3-manifold under which there is no transverse disk that flows continuously back into its own interior. We provide an algorithm for modifying any branched surface transverse to such a flow ? that terminates in a branched surface carrying a foliation F precisely when F is transverse to ?. As a corollary, we find branched surfaces that do not carry foliations but that lift to ones that do.     

Reidemeister–Turaev torsion of 3-dimensional¶Euler structures with simple boundary tangency¶and pseudo-Legendrian knots

We generalize Turaev's definition of torsion invariants of pairs (M,&\xi;), where M is a 3-dimensional manifold and &\xi; is an Euler structure on M (a non-singular vector field up to homotopy relative to ∂M and modifications supported in a ball contained in Int(M)). Namely, we allow M to have arbitrary boundary and &\xi; to have simple (convex and/or concave) tangency circles to the boundary. We prove that Turaev's H ₁(M)-equivariance formula holds also in our generalized context. Using branched standard spines to encode vector fields we show how to explicitly invert Turaev's reconstruction map from combinatorial to smooth Euler structures, thus making the computation of torsions a more effective one. Euler structures of the sort we consider naturally arise in the study of pseudo-Legendrian knots (i.e.~knots transversal to a given vector field), and hence of Legendrian knots in contact 3-manifolds. We show that torsion, as an absolute invariant, contains a lifting to pseudo-Legendrian knots of the classical Alexander invariant. We also precisely analyze the information carried by torsion as a relative invariant of pseudo-Legendrian knots which are framed-isotopic. Received: 3 October 2000 / Revised version: 20 April 2001     

Explicit horizontal open books on some Seifert fibered 3-manifolds

We describe explicit horizontal open books on some Seifert fibered 3-manifolds. We show that the contact structures compatible with these horizontal open books are Stein fillable and horizontal as well. Moreover we draw surgery diagrams for some of these contact structures.     

Classifying foliations of 3-manifolds via branched surfaces

We use branched surfaces to define an equivalence relation on C¹ codimension one foliations of any closed orientable 3-manifold that are transverse to some fixed nonsingular flow. There is a discrete metric on the set of equivalence classes with the property that foliations that are sufficiently close (up to equivalence) share important topological properties.     

Contact handle decompositions

We review Giroux's contact handles and contact handle attachments in dimension three and show that a bypass attachment consists of a pair of contact 1 and 2-handles. As an application we describe explicit contact handle decompositions of infinitely many pairwise non-isotopic overtwisted 3-spheres. We also give an alternative proof of the fact that every compact contact 3-manifold (closed or with convex boundary) admits a contact handle decomposition, which is a result originally due to Giroux.     

Contact structures, equivariant spin bordism, and periodic fundamental groups

Using contact surgery and equivariant bordism theory, we prove the existence of contact structures on all 5-dimensional spin manifolds with certain finite fundamental groups. Received September 13, 1999 / Revised version September 13, 2000 / Published online April 12, 2001     

Monotonicity and uniqueness of traveling waves for a reaction-diffusion model with a quiescent stage

This paper is concerned with the monotonicity and uniqueness of traveling waves for a reaction-diffusion model with quiescent stage. We first obtain the exponential decay rate of wave profiles, and then we show that any profile is strictly monotone by using the strong comparison principle. Furthermore, we prove the uniqueness (up to translation) of all traveling waves including even the waves with minimal speed.     

Analogies between group actions on 3-manifolds and number fields

Let a cyclic group $G$ act either on a number field $\mathbb L$ or on a $3$-manifold $M$. Let $s_{\mathbb L}$ be the number of ramified primes in the extension $\mathbb L^G\subset \mathbb L$ and $s_M$ be the number of components of the branching set of the branched covering $M\to M/G$. In this paper, we prove several formulas relating $s_{\mathbb L}$ and $s_M$ to the induced $G$-action on $Cl(\mathbb L)$ and $H_1(M),$ respectively. We observe that the formulas for $3$-manifolds and number fields are almost identical, and therefore, they provide new evidence for the correspondence between $3$-manifolds and number fields postulated in arithmetic topology.     

Bounded cohomology and non-uniform perfection of mapping class groups

Using the existence of certain symplectic submanifolds in symplectic 4-manifolds, we prove an estimate from above for the number of singular fibers with separating vanishing cycles in minimal Lefschetz fibrations over surfaces of positive genus. This estimate is then used to deduce that mapping class groups are not uniformly perfect, and that the map from their second bounded cohomology to ordinary cohomology is not injective. Oblatum 8-IX-2000 & 20-X-2000?Published online: 29 January 2001     

Einstein metrics and the number of smooth structures on a four-manifold

We prove that for every natural number k there are simply connected topological four-manifolds which have at least k distinct smooth structures supporting Einstein metrics, and also have infinitely many distinct smooth structures not supporting Einstein metrics. Moreover, all these smooth structures become diffeomorphic to each other after connected sum with only one copy of the complex projective plane. We prove that manifolds with these properties cover a large geographical area.     

The geography of spin symplectic 4-manifolds

In this paper we construct a family of simply connected spin non-complex symplectic 4-manifolds which cover all but finitely many allowed lattice points () lying in the region . Furthermore, as a corollary, we prove that there exist infinitely many exotic smooth structures on for all n large enough. Received: 29 August 2000 / in final form: 15 August 2001 / Published online: 28 February 2002     

A contamination carrying criterion for branched surfaces

A contamination in a 3-manifold is an object interpolating between the contact structure and the lamination. Contaminations seem to provide a link between 3-dimensional contact geometry and the classical topology of 3-manifolds, as described in a separate paper (Oertel and Świa̧tkowski, Contact structures, σ-confoliations, and contaminations in 3-manifolds. arXiv math.GT/0307177). In this article we deal with contaminations carried by branched surfaces, giving a sufficient condition for a branched surface to carry a pure contamination.     

Quadratic functions and complex spin structures on three-manifolds

We show how the space of complex spin structures of a closed oriented three-manifold embeds naturally into a space of quadratic functions associated to its linking pairing. Besides, we extend the Goussarov-Habiro theory of finite type invariants to the realm of compact oriented three-manifolds equipped with a complex spin structure. Our main result states that two closed oriented three-manifolds endowed with a complex spin structure are undistinguishable by complex spin invariants of degree zero if, and only if, their associated quadratic functions are isomorphic.     

Semiregular surfaces with a single triple-point

We exhibit 18 surfaces that can be mapped generically into 3-space with a single triple-point. The family should be used as a source of examples and counter-examples.     

Nonsmoothable group actions on elliptic surfaces

Let G be a cyclic group of order 3, 5 or 7, and X=E(n) be the relatively minimal elliptic surface with rational base. In this paper, we prove that under certain conditions on n, there exists a locally linear G-action on X which is nonsmoothable with respect to infinitely many smooth structures on X. This extends the main result of [X. Liu, N. Nakamura, Pseudofree Z/3-actions on K3 surfaces, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 135 (3) (2007) 903-910].     

A spanning tree cohomology theory for links

In their recent preprint, Baldwin, Ozsváth and Szabó defined a twisted version (with coefficients in a Novikov ring) of a spectral sequence, previously defined by Ozsváth and Szabó, from Khovanov homology to Heegaard–Floer homology of the branched double cover along a link. In their preprint, they give a combinatorial interpretation of the _E3$E_3$-term of their spectral sequence. The main purpose of the present paper is to prove directly that this _E3$E_3$-term is a link invariant. We also give some concrete examples of computation of the invariant.     

Non-linear partial differential equations with discrete state-dependent delays in a metric space

We investigate a class of non-linear partial differential equations with discrete state-dependent delays. The existence and uniqueness of strong solutions for initial functions from a Banach space are proved. To get the well-posed initial value problem we restrict our study to a smaller metric space, construct the dynamical system and prove the existence of a compact global attractor.     

Cobordism of immersions of surfaces¶in non-orientable 3-manifolds

Some properties of non-orientable 3-manifolds are shown. In particular, for a connected, non-orientable 3-manifold M, the group of cobordism clases of immersions of surfaces in M is isomorphic to a group structure on the set H ₂(M,Z/2Z)×H ₁(M,Z/2Z)×Z/2Z. Received: 8 June 2000 / Revised version: 2 October 2000     

Computable Legendrian invariants

We establish tools to facilitate the computation and application of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra (DGA), a Legendrian-isotopy invariant of Legendrian knots and links in standard contact three space. More specifically, we reformulate the DGA in terms of front projections, and introduce the characteristic algebra, a new invariant derived from the DGA. We use our techniques to distinguish between several previously indistinguishable Legendrian knots and links.