On the dynamical coherence of structurally stable 3-diffeomorphisms

We prove that each structurally stable diffeomorphism f on a closed 3-manifold M ³ with a two-dimensional surface nonwandering set is topologically conjugated to some model dynamically coherent diffeomorphism.     

Families of simply connected 4-manifolds with the same Seiberg-Witten invariants

This article presents several new constructions of infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic. While the construction gives strong evidence that any two of these manifolds of are not diffeomorphic, they cannot be distinguished by Seiberg-Witten invariants. Whether these manifolds are, or are not, diffeomorphic seems to be a very difficult question to answer. For one of these constructions, each member of the family is symplectic with the further property that each contains nullhomologous tori with the property that infinitely many log transformations on these tori yield nonsymplectic 4-manifolds. This is detected by calculations of Seiberg-Witten invariants. The surgery in question can be performed on any 4-manifold which contains as a codimension 0 submanifold a punctured surface bundle over a punctured surface and a nontrivial loop in the base which has trivial monodromy. A starting point for another class of examples in this paper is a family of examples which show that the Parshin-Arakelov theorem for holomorphic Lefschetz fibrations is false in the symplectic category. Such families are constructed by means of knot surgery on ellipitic surfaces. It is shown that for a fixed homeomorphism type X (of a simply connected elliptic surface) and a fixed integer g?3, there are infinitely many genus g Lefschetz fibrations on nondiffeomorphic 4-manifolds, all homeomorphic to X.     

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.     

Geometric diffeomorphism finiteness in low dimensions and homotopy group finiteness

The main results of this note consist in the following two geometric finiteness theorems for diffeomorphism types and homotopy groups of closed simply connected manifolds: 1. For any given numbers C and D the class of closed smooth simply connected manifolds of dimension which admit Riemannian metrics with sectional curvature bounded in absolute value by $\vert K \vert\le C$ and diameter bounded from above by D contains at most finitely many diffeomorphism types. In each dimension there exist counterexamples to the preceding statement. 2. For any given numbers C and D and any dimension m there exist for each natural number up to isomorphism always at most finitely many groups which can occur as the k-th homotopy group of a closed smooth simply connected m-manifold which admits a metric with sectional curvature and diameter . Received: 21 August 1999 / Accepted: 20 April 2001 / Published online: 19 October 2001     

Weak mixing disc and annulus diffeomorphisms with arbitrary Liouville rotation number on the boundary

Let M be an m-dimensional differentiable manifold with a nontrivial circle action S={St_}t∈R, St+1=St, preserving a smooth volume μ. For any Liouville number α we construct a sequence of area-preserving diffeomorphisms Hn such that the sequence converges to a smooth weak mixing diffeomorphism of M. The method is a quantitative version of the approximation by conjugations construction introduced in [Trans. Moscow Math. Soc. 23 (1970) 1].For m=2 and M equal to the unit disc D²={x²+y²?1} or the closed annulus A=T×[0,1] this result proves the following dichotomy: α∈R?Q is Diophantine if and only if there is no ergodic diffeomorphism of M whose rotation number on the boundary equals α (on at least one of the boundaries in the case of A). One part of the dichotomy follows from our constructions, the other is an unpublished result of Michael Herman asserting that if α is Diophantine, then any area preserving diffeomorphism with rotation number α on the boundary (on at least one of the boundaries in the case of A) displays smooth invariant curves arbitrarily close to the boundary which clearly precludes ergodicity or even topological transitivity.     

Surface basic sets with wildly embedded supporting surfaces

The situation where a “nice” diffeomorphism f of a 3-manifold has a wildly embedded invariant surfaceM for which the restriction g = f| _M : M → M is “nice” is considered.     

Classification of smooth structures on a homotopy complex projective space

We classify, up to diffeomorphism, all closed smooth manifolds homeomorphic to the complex projective n-space \(\mathbb {C}\textbf {P}^{n}\), where n=3 and 4. Let M²ⁿ be a closed smooth 2n-manifold homotopy equivalent to \(\mathbb {C}\textbf {P}^{n}\). We show that, up to diffeomorphism, M⁶ has a unique differentiable structure and M⁸ has at most two distinct differentiable structures. We also show that, up to concordance, there exist at least two distinct differentiable structures on a finite sheeted cover N²ⁿ of \(\mathbb {C}\textbf {P}^{n}\) for n=4,7 or 8 and six distinct differentiable structures on N¹⁰.     

Ricci curvature, minimal volumes, and Seiberg-Witten theory

We derive new, sharp lower bounds for certain curvature functionals on the space of Riemannian metrics of a smooth compact 4-manifold with non-trivial Seiberg-Witten invariants. These allow one, for example, to exactly compute the infimum of the L ²-norm of Ricci curvature for any complex surface of general type. We are also able to show that the standard metric on any complex-hyperbolic 4-manifold minimizes volume among all metrics satisfying a point-wise lower bound on sectional curvature plus suitable multiples of the scalar curvature. These estimates also imply new non-existence results for Einstein metrics. Oblatum 14-III-2000 & 8-II-2001?Published online: 4 May 2001     

Reduced Delzant spaces and a convexity theorem

The convexity theorem of Atiyah and Guillemin-Sternberg says that any connected compact manifold with Hamiltonian torus action has a moment map whose image is the convex hull of the image of the fixed point set. Sjamaar-Lerman proved that the Marsden-Weinstein reduction of a connected Hamitonian G-manifold is a stratified symplectic space. Suppose 1→A→G→T→1 is an exact sequence of compact Lie groups and T is a torus. Then the reduction of a Hamiltonian G-manifold with respect to A yields a Hamiltonian T-space. We show that if the A-moment map is proper, then the convexity theorem holds for such a Hamiltonian T-space, even when it is singular. We also prove that if, furthermore, the T-space has dimension and T acts effectively, then the moment polytope is sufficient to essentially distinguish their homeomorphism type, though not their diffeomorphism types. This generalizes a theorem of Delzant in the smooth case. This paper is a concise version of a companion paper [B. Lian. B. Song, A convexity theorem and reduced Delzant spaces, math.DG/0509429].     

Rigidity of Einstein 4-manifolds with positive curvature

An Einstein metric with positive scalar curvature on a 4-manifold is said to be normalized if Ric=1. A basic problem in Riemannian geometry is to classify Einstein 4-manifolds with positive sectional curvature in the category of either topology, diffeomorphism, or isometry. It is shown in this paper that if the sectional curvature K of a normalized Einstein 4-manifold M satisfies the lower bound K≥ε₀, ε₀≡(-23)/120≈0.102843, or condition (b) of Theorem 1.1, then it is isometric to either S ⁴, RP ⁴ with constant sectional curvature K=1/3, or CP ² with the normalized Fubini-Study metric. As a consequence, both the normalized moduli spaces of Einstein metrics which satisfy either one of the above two conditions on S ⁴ and CP ² contain only a single point. In particular, if M is a smooth 4-manifold which is homeomorphic to either S ⁴, RP ⁴, or CP ² but not diffeomorphic to any of the three manifolds, then it can not support any normalized Einstein metric which satisfies either one of the conditions. Oblatum 4-II-1999 & 4-V-2000?Published online: 16 August 2000     

Embedding smooth and formal diffeomorphisms through the Jordan-Chevalley decomposition

In [Xiang Zhang, The embedding flows of C^∞ hyperbolic diffeomorphisms, J. Differential Equations 250 (5) (2011) 2283-2298] Zhang proved that any local smooth hyperbolic diffeomorphism whose eigenvalues are weakly nonresonant is embedded in the flow of a smooth vector field. We present a new and more conceptual proof of such result using the Jordan-Chevalley decomposition in algebraic groups and the properties of the exponential operator.We characterize the hyperbolic smooth (resp. formal) diffeomorphisms that are embedded in a smooth (resp. formal) flow. We introduce a criterion showing that the presence of weak resonances for a diffeomorphism plus two natural conditions imply that it is not embeddable. This solves a conjecture of Zhang. The criterion is optimal, we provide a method to construct embeddable diffeomorphisms with weak resonances if we remove any of the conditions.     

The stable topology of 4-manifolds

The stable theory (which allows connected sums with S²×S²) is unified and extended using current 4-manifold techniques. Principal new results are a stable 5-dimensional s-cobordism theorem, and the fact that 1-connected smooth 4-manifold pairs stably have handle decompositions with no 1-handles.     

Relative symplectic caps, 4-genus and fibered knots

We prove relative versions of the symplectic capping theorem and sufficiency of Giroux’s criterion for Stein fillability and use these to study the 4-genus of knots. More precisely, suppose we have a symplectic 4-manifold X with convex boundary and a symplectic surface Σ in X such that ?Σ is a transverse knot in ?X. In this paper, we prove that there is a closed symplectic 4-manifold Y with a closed symplectic surface S such that (X,Σ) embeds into (Y,S) symplectically. As a consequence we obtain a relative version of the symplectic Thom conjecture. We also prove a relative version of the sufficiency part of Giroux’s criterion for Stein fillability, namely, we show that a fibered knot whose mondoromy is a product of positive Dehn twists bounds a symplectic surface in a Stein filling. We use this to study 4-genus of fibered knots in \(\mathbb {S}^{3} \). Further, we give a criterion for quasipositive fibered knots to be strongly quasipositive.     

A geometric formula for Haefliger knots

Haefliger has shown that a smooth embedding of the (4k−1)-sphere in the 6k-sphere can be knotted in the smooth sense. In this paper, we give a formula with which we can detect the isotopy class of such a Haefliger knot. The formula is expressed in terms of the geometric characteristics of an extension, analogous to a Seifert surface, of the given embedding. In particular, the Hopf invariant associated to the extension plays a crucial role. This leads us to a new characterisation of Haefliger knots.     

Manifolds accepting codimension-one- sphere-shape decompositions

A decomposition of a metric space is said to be CS^k-shape if each of its members is a compactum shape equivalent to a cohomology k-sphere. We will show that for m?2 every CS^m?1-shape decomposition of a closed m-manifold is upper semicontinuous (Theorem 3.1). Consequently, for m≠3, 4, 5, every connected closed m-manifold accepting an S^m?1-shape decomposition is homeomorphic to the total space of an (m?1)-sphere-fiber bundle over the circle (Theorem 4.2).     

Exotic involutions on symplectic 4-manifolds and G-monopole invariants

Using the G-monopole invariant, we shall show that any anti-holomorphic involution on a closed symplectic 4-manifold is not diffeomorphic to any holomorphic involution. As a corollary, we shall give a way to construct exotic smooth structures.     

How often surface diffeomorphisms have infinitely many sinks and hyperbolicity of periodic points near a homoclinic tangency

Here we study an amazing phenomenon discovered by Newhouse [S. Newhouse, Non-density of Axiom A(a) on S², in: Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., vol. 14, Amer. Math. Soc., 1970, pp. 191-202; S. Newhouse, Diffeomorphisms with infinitely many sinks, Topology 13 (1974) 9-18; S. Newhouse, The abundance of wild hyperbolic sets and nonsmooth stable sets of diffeomorphisms, Publ. Math. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. 50 (1979) 101-151]. It turns out that in the space of Cr smooth diffeomorphisms Diffr(M) of a compact surface M there is an open set U such that a Baire generic diffeomorphism f∈U has infinitely many coexisting sinks. In this paper we make a step towards understanding “how often does a surface diffeomorphism have infinitely many sinks.” Our main result roughly says that with probability one for any positive D a surface diffeomorphism has only finitely many localized sinks either of cyclicity bounded by D or those whose period is relatively large compared to its cyclicity. It verifies a particular case of Palis' Conjecture saying that even though diffeomorphisms with infinitely many coexisting sinks are Baire generic, they have probability zero.One of the key points of the proof is an application of Newton Interpolation Polynomials to study the dynamics initiated in [V. Kaloshin, B. Hunt, A stretched exponential bound on the rate of growth of the number of periodic points for prevalent diffeomorphisms I, Ann. of Math., in press, 92 pp.; V. Kaloshin, A stretched exponential bound on the rate of growth of the number of periodic points for prevalent diffeomorphisms II, preprint, 85 pp.].     

On the simple isotopy class of a source-sink diffeomorphism on the 3-sphere

The results obtained in this paper are related to the Palis-Pugh problem on the existence of an arc with finitely or countably many bifurcations which joins two Morse-Smale systems on a closed smooth manifold M ⁿ . Newhouse and Peixoto showed that such an arc joining flows exists for any n and, moreover, it is simple. However, there exist isotopic diffeomorphisms which cannot be joined by a simple arc. For n = 1, this is related to the presence of the Poincaré rotation number, and for n = 2, to the possible existence of periodic points of different periods and heteroclinic orbits. In this paper, for the dimension n = 3, a new obstruction to the existence of a simple arc is revealed, which is related to the wild embedding of all separatrices of saddle points. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a Morse-Smale diffeomorphism on the 3-sphere without heteroclinic intersections to be joined by a simple arc with a “source-sink” diffeomorphism are also found.     

Incompressibility and least-area surfaces

We show that if F is a smooth, closed, orientable surface embedded in a closed, orientable 3-manifold M such that for each Riemannian metric g on M, F   is isotopic to a least-area surface F(g)$F(g)$, then F is incompressible.     

Moves for standard skeleta of 3-manifolds with marked boundary

A 3-manifold with marked boundary is a pair (M, X), where M is a compact 3-manifold whose (possibly empty) boundary is made up of tori and Klein bottles, and X is a trivalent graph that is a spine of ?M. A standard skeleton of a 3-manifold with marked boundary (M, X) is a standard sub-polyhedron P of M such that P ?? ?M coincides with X and with ?P, and such that ${P \cup \partial M}$ is a spine of ${M\setminus B}$ (where B is a ball). In this paper, we will prove that the classical set of moves for standard spines of 3-manifolds (i.e. the MP-move and the V-move) does not suffice to relate to each other any two standard skeleta of a 3-manifold with marked boundary. We will also describe a condition on the 3-manifold with marked boundary that allows to establish whether the generalised set of moves, made up of the MP-move and the L-move, suffices to relate to each other any two standard skeleta of the 3-manifold with marked boundary. For the 3-manifolds with marked boundary that do not fulfil this condition, we give three other moves: the CR-move, the T₁-move and the T₂-move. The first one is local and, with the MP-move and the L-move, suffices to relate to each other any two standard skeleta of a 3-manifold with marked boundary fulfilling another condition. For the universal case, we will prove that the non-local T₁-move and T₂-move, with the MP-move and the L-move, suffice to relate to each other any two standard skeleta of a generic 3-manifold with marked boundary. As a corollary, we will get that disc-replacements suffice to relate to each other any two standard skeleta of a 3-manifold with marked boundary.