Manifold structures on abstract regular polytopes

Summary Abstract regular polytopes are complexes which generalize the classical regular polytopes. This paper discusses the topology of abstract regular polytopes whose vertex-figures are spherical and whose facets are topologically distinct from balls. The case of toroidal facets is particularly interesting and was studied earlier by Coxeter, Shephard and Grünbaum. Ann-dimensional manifold is associated with many abstract (n + 1)-polytopes. This is decomposed inton-dimensional manifolds-with-boundary (such as solid tori). For some polytopes with few faces the topological type or certain topological invariants of these manifolds are determined. For 4-polytopes with toroidal facets the manifolds include the 3-sphereS ³, connected sums of handlesS ¹ × S ² , euclidean and spherical space forms, and other examples with non-trivial fundamental group.     

Absolutely graded Floer homologies and intersection forms for four-manifolds with boundary

In Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic triangles and invariants for smooth four-manifolds, math. SG/0110169, 2001), we introduced absolute gradings on the three-manifold invariants developed in Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic disks and topological invariants for closed three-manifolds, math.SG/0101206, Ann. of Math. (2001), to appear). Coupled with the surgery long exact sequences, we obtain a number of three- and four-dimensional applications of this absolute grading including strengthenings of the “complexity bounds” derived in Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic disks and three-manifold invariants: properties and applications, math.SG/0105202, Ann. of Math. (2001), to appear), restrictions on knots whose surgeries give rise to lens spaces, and calculations of HF⁺ for a variety of three-manifolds. Moreover, we show how the structure of HF⁺ constrains the exoticness of definite intersection forms for smooth four-manifolds which bound a given three-manifold. In addition to these new applications, the techniques also provide alternate proofs of Donaldson's diagonalizability theorem and the Thom conjecture for .     

Hamiltonian / Gauge theoretical Gromov-Witten invariants of toric varieties

We present a purely algebraic approach to the Hamiltonian / Gauge theoretical invariants associated to torus actions on affine spaces. Secondly, we address the issue of computing the invariants: a localization and a genus recursion formula are deduced. Partially supported by: EAGER - European Algebraic Geometry Research Training Network, contract No. HPRN-CT-2000-00099 (BBW).     

Cohomological rigidity and the number of homeomorphism types for small covers over prisms

In this paper, based upon the basic theory for glued manifolds in M.W. Hirsch (1976) [8, Chapter 8, §2 Gluing Manifolds Together], we give a method of constructing homeomorphisms between two small covers over simple convex polytopes. As a result we classify, up to homeomorphism, all small covers over a 3-dimensional prism P³(m) with m?3. We introduce two invariants from colored prisms and other two invariants from ordinary cohomology rings with Z₂-coefficients of small covers. These invariants can form a complete invariant system of homeomorphism types of all small covers over a prism in most cases. Then we show that the cohomological rigidity holds for all small covers over a prism P³(m) (i.e., cohomology rings with Z₂-coefficients of all small covers over a P³(m) determine their homeomorphism types). In addition, we also calculate the number of homeomorphism types of all small covers over P³(m).     

A refinement of the Bernštein-Kušnirenko estimate

A theorem of Kušnirenko and Bernštein (also known as the BKK theorem) shows that the number of isolated solutions in a torus to a system of polynomial equations is bounded above by the mixed volume of the Newton polytopes of the given polynomials, and this upper bound is generically exact. We improve on this result by introducing refined combinatorial invariants of polynomials and a generalization of the mixed volume of convex bodies: the mixed integral of concave functions. The proof is based on new techniques and results from relative toric geometry.     

Serre-Taubes duality for pseudoholomorphic curves

According to Taubes, the Gromov invariants of a symplectic four-manifold X with b₊>1 satisfy the duality Gr(α)=±Gr(κ−α), where κ is Poincaré dual to the canonical class. Extending joint work with Simon Donaldson, we interpret this result in terms of Serre duality on the fibres of a Lefschetz pencil on X, by proving an analogous symmetry for invariants counting sections of associated bundles of symmetric products. Using similar methods, we give a new proof of an existence theorem for symplectic surfaces in four-manifolds with b₊=1 and b₁=0. This reproves another theorem due to Taubes: two symplectic homology projective planes with negative canonical class and equal volume are symplectomorphic.     

Vassiliev invariants and the Poincaré conjecture

This article examines the relationship between 3-manifold topology and knot invariants of finite type. We prove that in every Whitehead manifold there exist knots that cannot be distinguished by Vassiliev invariants. If, on the other hand, Vassiliev invariants distinguish knots in each homotopy sphere, then the Poincaré conjecture is true (i.e. every homotopy 3-sphere is homeomorphic to the standard 3-sphere).     

Mutative hyperbolic homology 3-spheres with the same Floer homology

We construct a large class of finitely many hyperbolic homology 3-spheres making the following invariants equal, simultaneously, the integral homology, the quantum SU(2) invariants, the hyperbolic volume, the hyperbolic isometry group, the -invariant, the Chern-Simons invariant, and the Floer homology.     

The Caporaso–Harris formula and plane relative Gromov-Witten invariants in tropical geometry

Some years ago Caporaso and Harris have found a nice way to compute the numbers N(d, g) of complex plane curves of degree d and genus g through 3d + g − 1 general points with the help of relative Gromov-Witten invariants. Recently, Mikhalkin has found a way to reinterpret the numbers N(d, g) in terms of tropical geometry and to compute them by counting certain lattice paths in integral polytopes. We relate these two results by defining an analogue of the relative Gromov-Witten invariants and rederiving the Caporaso–Harris formula in terms of both tropical geometry and lattice paths. H. Markwig has been funded by the DFG grant Ga 636/2.     

Inequivalent surface-knots with the same knot quandle

We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In surface-knot theory the situation is different: There exist arbitrarily many inequivalent surface-knots of genus g with the same knot quandle, and there exist two inequivalent surface-knots of genus g with the same knot quandle and with the same fundamental class.     

On rack cohomology

We prove that the lower bounds for Betti numbers of the rack, quandle and degeneracy cohomology given in Carter et al. (J. Pure Appl. Algebra, 157 (2001) 135) are in fact equalities. We compute as well the Betti numbers of the twisted cohomology introduced in Carter et al. (Twisted quandle cohomology theory and cocycle knot invariants, math. GT/0108051). We also give a group-theoretical interpretation of the second cohomology group for racks.     

Colored Turaev-Viro invariants of twist knots

In the present paper we give a formula for colored Turaev-Viro invariants of twist knots using special polyhedra derived from (1,1)-decomposition of the knots.     

Birational invariants in the case¶of prime characteristic

The Frobenius automorphism of the function field allows to define some discrete birational invariants of algebraic manifolds using p ^s -th powers of differentials. Examples of algebraic hypersurfaces are sufficient to show the independence of the familiar birational invariants. Received: Received: 6 March 1997     

Algebro-geometric characterization of Cayley polytopes

In this paper, we give an algebro-geometric characterization of Cayley polytopes. As a special case, we also characterize lattice polytopes with lattice width one by using Seshadri constants.     

An expression for the Homflypt polynomial and some applications

Associated with each oriented link is the two variable Homflypt polynomial. The Morton–Franks–Williams (MFW) inequality gives rise to an expression for the Homflypt polynomial with MFW coefficient polynomials. These MFW coefficient polynomials are labeled in a braid-dependent manner and may be zero, but display a number of interesting relations. One consequence is an expression for the first three Laurent coefficient polynomials in z as a function of the other coefficient polynomials and three link invariants: the minimum v-degree and v-span of the Homflypt polynomial, and the Conway polynomial.     

On toric h-vectors of centrally symmetric polytopes

We prove tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the toric h-vector of an arbitrary centrally symmetric polytope generalizing previous results due to R. Stanley and the author using toric varieties. Our proof here is based on the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology for normal fans of polytopes developed by G. Barthel, J.-P. Brasselet, K. Fieseler and L. Kaup, and independently by P. Bressler and V. Lunts. This theory is also valid for nonrational polytopes when there is no standard correspondence with toric varieties. In this way we can establish our bounds for centrally symmetric polytopes even without requiring them to be rational. Received: 24 March 2004     

Grope cobordism of classical knots

Motivated by the lower central series of a group, we define the notion of a grope cobordism between two knots in a 3-manifold. Just like an iterated group commutator, each grope cobordism has a type that can be described by a rooted unitrivalent tree. By filtering these trees in different ways, we show how the Goussarov-Habiro approach to finite type invariants of knots is closely related to our notion of grope cobordism. Thus our results can be viewed as a geometric interpretation of finite type invariants.The derived commutator series of a group also has a three-dimensional analogy, namely knots modulo symmetric grope cobordism. On one hand this theory maps onto the usual Vassiliev theory and on the other hand it maps onto the Cochran-Orr-Teichner filtration of the knot concordance group, via symmetric grope cobordism in 4-space. In particular, the graded theory contains information on finite type invariants (with degree h terms mapping to Vassiliev degree 2^h), Blanchfield forms or S-equivalence at h=2, Casson-Gordon invariants at h=3, and for h=4 one finds the new von Neumann signatures of a knot.     

Birational invariants in the case of prime characteristic

The Frobenius automorphism of the function field allows to define some discrete birational invariants of algebraic manifolds usingp ^s -th powers of differentials. Examples of algebraic hypersurfaces are sufficient to show the independence of the familiar birational invariants.     

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.