Local sections of Serre fibrations with 3-manifold fibers

It was proved by H. Whitney in 1933 that a Serre fibration of compact metric spaces admits a global section provided every fiber is homeomorphic to the unit interval [0,1]. An extension of the Whitney's theorem to the case when all fibers are homeomorphic to some fixed compact two-dimensional manifold was proved by the authors (Brodsky et al. (2008) [2]). The main result of this paper proves the existence of local sections in a Serre fibration with all fibers homeomorphic to some fixed compact three-dimensional manifold.     

A solution to de Groot’s absolute cone conjecture

A compactum X is an ‘absolute cone’ if, for each of its points x, the space X is homeomorphic to a cone with x corresponding to the cone point. In 1971, J. de Groot conjectured that each n-dimensional absolute cone is an n-cell. In this paper, we give a complete solution to that conjecture. In particular, we show that the conjecture is true for n≤3 and false for n≥5. For n=4, the absolute cone conjecture is true if and only if the 3-dimensional Poincaré Conjecture is true.     

Locally G-homogeneous Busemann G-spaces

We present short proofs of all known topological properties of general Busemann G-spaces (at present no other property is known for dimensions more than four). We prove that all small metric spheres in locally G-homogeneous Busemann G-spaces are homeomorphic and strongly topologically homogeneous. This is a key result in the context of the classical Busemann conjecture concerning the characterization of topological manifolds, which asserts that every n-dimensional Busemann G-space is a topological n-manifold. We also prove that every Busemann G-space which is uniformly locally G-homogeneous on an orbal subset must be finite-dimensional.     

Separable complete ANR's admitting a group structure are Hilbert manifolds

Let X be a complete-metrizable, separable ANR. The following two facts are shown: (a) if X admits a topological group structure, then either this is a Lie group structure or X is an l₂-manifold; (b) If X is a closed convex set in a complete metric linear space, then X is either locally compact or homeomorphic to l₂.     

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).     

Loops on spheres having a compact-free inner mapping group

We prove that any topological loop homeomorphic to a sphere or to a real projective space and having a compact-free Lie group as the inner mapping group is homeomorphic to the circle. Moreover, we classify the differentiable 1-dimensional compact loops explicitly using the theory of Fourier series. Authors’ addresses: ágota Figula, Mathematisches Institut der Universit?t Erlangen-Nürnberg, Bismarckstr. 1 1/2, 91054 Erlangen, Germany and Institute of Mathematics, University of Debrecen, P.O.B. 12, H-4010 Debrecen, Hungary; Karl Strambach, Mathematisches Institut der Universit?t Erlangen-Nürnberg, Bismarckstr. 1 1/2, 91054 Erlangen, Germany     

The hyperspace of hereditarily decomposable subcontinua of a cube is the Hurewicz set

The hyperspaces of hereditarily decomposable continua and of decomposable subcontinua without pseudoarcs in the cube of dimension greater than 2 are homeomorphic to the Hurewicz set of all nonempty countable closed subsets of the unit interval [0,1]. Moreover, in such a cube, all indecomposable subcontinua form a homotopy dense subset of the hyperspace of (nonempty) subcontinua.     

The Locally Connected Compact Metric Spaces Embeddable In The Plane

We prove that a 2-connected, locally connected, compact topological space M is homeomorphic to a subset of the 2-sphere if and only if M is metrizable and contains none of the Kuratowski graphs K ₅ and K _3,3.     

The converse of the Solid Torus Theorem

Given positive integers p and q, a (p,q)-solid torus is a manifold diffeomorphic to Dp+1×Sq while a (p,q)-torus in a closed manifold M is the image of a differentiably embedding Sp×Sq→M. We prove that if n=p+q+1 with p=q=1 or p≠q, then M is homeomorphic to Sn whenever every (p,q)-torus bounds a (p,q)-solid torus. We also prove for p=q that every closed n-manifold for which every (p,p)-torus bounds an irreducible manifold is irreducible. Consequently, every closed 3-manifold for which every torus bounds an irreducible manifold is irreducible.     

Valdivia compact groups are products

It is shown that every Valdivia compact group is homeomorphic to a product of metrizable compacta.     

Strongly countable dimensional compacta form the Hurewicz set

The hyperspaces of strongly countable dimensional compacta of positive dimension and of strongly countable dimensional continua of dimension greater than 1 in the Hilbert cube are homeomorphic to the Hurewicz set of all nonempty countable closed subsets of the unit interval [0,1]. These facts hold true, in particular, for covering dimension dim and cohomological dimension dimG, where G is any Abelian group.     

Examples of cell-like decompositions of the infinite-dimensional manifolds σ and Σ

Denote by σ the subspace of Hilbert space {(x_i)?l₂:x_i=0 for all but finitely many i}. Examples of cell-like decompositions of σ are constructed that have decomposition spaces that are not homeomorphic to σ. At one extreme is a cell-like decomposition G of σ produced using ghastly finite dimensional examples such that the decomposition space σ?G contains no embedded 2-cell but (σ?G)×$\text{R}$ is homeomorphic to σ. At the other extreme is a cell-like decomposition G of σ satisfying: (a) the nondegeneracy set N_G={g?G:g≠point} consists of countably many arcs (necessarily tame); (b) the nondegeneracy set N_G is a closed subset of the decomposition space σ?G; (c) each map f:B²→σ?G of a 2-cell into σ?G can be approximated arbitrarily closely by an embedding; (d) σ?G is not homeomorphic to σ but (σ?G)×$\text{R}$ is homeomorphic to σ. The fact that both conditions (a) and (b) can be satisfied (and have (d) hold) is directly attributable to σ’s incompleteness as a topological space.     

On the knot complement problem for non-hyperbolic knots

This paper explicitly provides two exhaustive and infinite families of pairs (M,k), where M is a lens space and k is a non-hyperbolic knot in M, which produces a manifold homeomorphic to M, by a non-trivial Dehn surgery. Then, we observe the uniqueness of such knot in such lens space, the uniqueness of the slope, and that there is no preserving homeomorphism between the initial and the final M's. We obtain further that Seifert fibered knots, except for the axes, and satellite knots are determined by their complements in lens spaces. An easy application shows that non-hyperbolic knots are determined by their complement in atoroidal and irreducible Seifert fibered 3-manifolds.     

A topological characterization of LF-spaces

We present a topological characterization of LF-spaces and detect small box-products that are (locally) homeomorphic to LF-spaces.     

Another universality property for crumpled cubes

Let C denote a crumpled n-cube in the n-sphere Sⁿ such that every Cantor set in its boundary is tamely embedded in Sⁿ. The main theorem shows C to be universal in the sense that however it is sewn to a crumpled n-cube D of type 2A, a large class containing most of the explicitly described examples, the resultant space is homeomorphic to Sⁿ.     

Cellularity in polyhedra

A compact subset X of a polyhedron P is cellular in P if there is a pseudoisotropy of P shrinking precisely X to a point. A proper surjection between polyhedra f:P→Q is cellular if each point inverse of f is cellular in P. It is shown that if f:P→Q is a cellular map and either P or Q is a generalized n-manifold, n≠4, then f is approximable by homeomorphisms. Also, if P or Q is an n-manifold with boundary, n≠4, 5, then a cellular map f:P→Q is approximable by homeomorphisms. A cellularity criterion for a special class of cell-like sets in polyhedra is established.     

Incompressible surfaces in handlebodies and boundary reducible 3-manifolds

We study the existence of incompressible embeddings of surfaces into the genus two handlebody. We show that for every compact surface with boundary, orientable or not, there is an incompressible embedding of the surface into the genus two handlebody. In the orientable case the embedding can be either separating or non-separating. We also consider the case in which the genus two handlebody is replaced by an orientable 3-manifold with a compressible boundary component of genus greater than or equal to two.     

A note on the volume flux group of four-manifolds

We show that closed orientable smooth four-manifolds with non-trivial volume flux group and fundamental group of subexponential growth type are finitely covered by a manifold homeomorphic to S³×S¹, S²×T² or a nil-manifold. We also show that if a compact complex surface has non-trivial volume flux group then it has zero minimal volume.     

Sewings of crumpled cubes revisited

This paper sets forth three mismatch properties, strictly ordered in strength, about sewings of crumpled n-cubes. The strongest is a sufficient but not a necessary condition for a sewing to yield Sn, and the weakest, a necessary but not sufficient one. We show that when both crumpled cubes satisfies the Disjoint Disks Property, then the weakest property implies the sewing yields Sn, and we also show that the intermediate property leads to the same conclusion when just one of the crumpled cubes possesses the Disjoint Disks Property. In addition, we develop examples that confirm sharpness of the relevant Disjoint Disks conditions.