Smooth Four-Manifolds and Complex Surfaces
Smooth Four-Manifolds and Complex Surfaces

Author: Robert Friedman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 3662030284

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In 1961 Smale established the generalized Poincare Conjecture in dimensions greater than or equal to 5 [129] and proceeded to prove the h-cobordism theorem [130]. This result inaugurated a major effort to classify all possible smooth and topological structures on manifolds of dimension at least 5. By the mid 1970's the main outlines of this theory were complete, and explicit answers (especially concerning simply connected manifolds) as well as general qualitative results had been obtained. As an example of such a qualitative result, a closed, simply connected manifold of dimension 2: 5 is determined up to finitely many diffeomorphism possibilities by its homotopy type and its Pontrjagin classes. There are similar results for self-diffeomorphisms, which, at least in the simply connected case, say that the group of self-diffeomorphisms of a closed manifold M of dimension at least 5 is commensurate with an arithmetic subgroup of the linear algebraic group of all automorphisms of its so-called rational minimal model which preserve the Pontrjagin classes [131]. Once the high dimensional theory was in good shape, attention shifted to the remaining, and seemingly exceptional, dimensions 3 and 4. The theory behind the results for manifolds of dimension at least 5 does not carryover to manifolds of these low dimensions, essentially because there is no longer enough room to maneuver. Thus new ideas are necessary to study manifolds of these "low" dimensions.

The Wild World of 4-Manifolds
The Wild World of 4-Manifolds

Author: Alexandru Scorpan

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2005-05-10

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 0821837494

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What a wonderful book! I strongly recommend this book to anyone, especially graduate students, interested in getting a sense of 4-manifolds. --MAA Reviews The book gives an excellent overview of 4-manifolds, with many figures and historical notes. Graduate students, nonexperts, and experts alike will enjoy browsing through it. -- Robion C. Kirby, University of California, Berkeley This book offers a panorama of the topology of simply connected smooth manifolds of dimension four. Dimension four is unlike any other dimension; it is large enough to have room for wild things to happen, but small enough so that there is no room to undo the wildness. For example, only manifolds of dimension four can exhibit infinitely many distinct smooth structures. Indeed, their topology remains the least understood today. To put things in context, the book starts with a survey of higher dimensions and of topological 4-manifolds. In the second part, the main invariant of a 4-manifold--the intersection form--and its interaction with the topology of the manifold are investigated. In the third part, as an important source of examples, complex surfaces are reviewed. In the final fourth part of the book, gauge theory is presented; this differential-geometric method has brought to light how unwieldy smooth 4-manifolds truly are, and while bringing new insights, has raised more questions than answers. The structure of the book is modular, organized into a main track of about two hundred pages, augmented by extensive notes at the end of each chapter, where many extra details, proofs and developments are presented. To help the reader, the text is peppered with over 250 illustrations and has an extensive index.

The Seiberg-Witten Equations and Applications to the Topology of Smooth Four-Manifolds. (MN-44), Volume 44
The Seiberg-Witten Equations and Applications to the Topology of Smooth Four-Manifolds. (MN-44), Volume 44

Author: John W. Morgan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2014-09-08

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1400865166

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The recent introduction of the Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth four-manifolds has revolutionized the study of those manifolds. The invariants are gauge-theoretic in nature and are close cousins of the much-studied SU(2)-invariants defined over fifteen years ago by Donaldson. On a practical level, the new invariants have proved to be more powerful and have led to a vast generalization of earlier results. This book is an introduction to the Seiberg-Witten invariants. The work begins with a review of the classical material on Spin c structures and their associated Dirac operators. Next comes a discussion of the Seiberg-Witten equations, which is set in the context of nonlinear elliptic operators on an appropriate infinite dimensional space of configurations. It is demonstrated that the space of solutions to these equations, called the Seiberg-Witten moduli space, is finite dimensional, and its dimension is then computed. In contrast to the SU(2)-case, the Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces are shown to be compact. The Seiberg-Witten invariant is then essentially the homology class in the space of configurations represented by the Seiberg-Witten moduli space. The last chapter gives a flavor for the applications of these new invariants by computing the invariants for most Kahler surfaces and then deriving some basic toological consequences for these surfaces.

The Wild World of 4-Manifolds
The Wild World of 4-Manifolds

Author: Alexandru Scorpan

Publisher: American Mathematical Society

Published: 2022-01-26

Total Pages: 614

ISBN-13: 1470468611

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What a wonderful book! I strongly recommend this book to anyone, especially graduate students, interested in getting a sense of 4-manifolds. —MAA Reviews The book gives an excellent overview of 4-manifolds, with many figures and historical notes. Graduate students, nonexperts, and experts alike will enjoy browsing through it. — Robion C. Kirby, University of California, Berkeley This book offers a panorama of the topology of simply connected smooth manifolds of dimension four. Dimension four is unlike any other dimension; it is large enough to have room for wild things to happen, but small enough so that there is no room to undo the wildness. For example, only manifolds of dimension four can exhibit infinitely many distinct smooth structures. Indeed, their topology remains the least understood today. To put things in context, the book starts with a survey of higher dimensions and of topological 4-manifolds. In the second part, the main invariant of a 4-manifold—the intersection form—and its interaction with the topology of the manifold are investigated. In the third part, as an important source of examples, complex surfaces are reviewed. In the final fourth part of the book, gauge theory is presented; this differential-geometric method has brought to light how unwieldy smooth 4-manifolds truly are, and while bringing new insights, has raised more questions than answers. The structure of the book is modular, organized into a main track of about two hundred pages, augmented by extensive notes at the end of each chapter, where many extra details, proofs and developments are presented. To help the reader, the text is peppered with over 250 illustrations and has an extensive index.

Geometry and Analysis on Complex Manifolds
Geometry and Analysis on Complex Manifolds

Author: Toshiki Mabuchi

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9789810220679

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This volume presents papers dedicated to Professor Shoshichi Kobayashi, commemorating the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on January 4, 1992.The principal theme of this volume is “Geometry and Analysis on Complex Manifolds”. It emphasizes the wide mathematical influence that Professor Kobayashi has on areas ranging from differential geometry to complex analysis and algebraic geometry. It covers various materials including holomorphic vector bundles on complex manifolds, Kähler metrics and Einstein–Hermitian metrics, geometric function theory in several complex variables, and symplectic or non-Kähler geometry on complex manifolds. These are areas in which Professor Kobayashi has made strong impact and is continuing to make many deep invaluable contributions.

Geometry And Analysis On Complex Manifolds: Festschrift For S Kobayashi's 60th Birthday
Geometry And Analysis On Complex Manifolds: Festschrift For S Kobayashi's 60th Birthday

Author: Toshiki Mabuchi

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 1994-12-09

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 9814501220

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This volume presents papers dedicated to Professor Shoshichi Kobayashi, commemorating the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on January 4, 1992.The principal theme of this volume is “Geometry and Analysis on Complex Manifolds”. It emphasizes the wide mathematical influence that Professor Kobayashi has on areas ranging from differential geometry to complex analysis and algebraic geometry. It covers various materials including holomorphic vector bundles on complex manifolds, Kähler metrics and Einstein-Hermitian metrics, geometric function theory in several complex variables, and symplectic or non-Kähler geometry on complex manifolds. These are areas in which Professor Kobayashi has made strong impact and is continuing to make many deep invaluable contributions.

Holomorphic Vector Bundles over Compact Complex Surfaces
Holomorphic Vector Bundles over Compact Complex Surfaces

Author: Vasile Brinzanescu

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2006-11-14

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 3540498451

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The purpose of this book is to present the available (sometimes only partial) solutions to the two fundamental problems: the existence problem and the classification problem for holomorphic structures in a given topological vector bundle over a compact complex surface. Special features of the nonalgebraic surfaces case, like irreducible vector bundles and stability with respect to a Gauduchon metric, are considered. The reader requires a grounding in geometry at graduate student level. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in complex, algebraic and differential geometry.

The Geometry of Four-manifolds
The Geometry of Four-manifolds

Author: S. K. Donaldson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9780198502692

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This text provides an accessible account to the modern study of the geometry of four-manifolds. Prerequisites are a firm grounding in differential topology and geometry, as may be gained from the first year of a graduate course.

Symplectic 4-Manifolds and Algebraic Surfaces
Symplectic 4-Manifolds and Algebraic Surfaces

Author: Fabrizio Catanese

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2008-04-17

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 3540782796

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Modern approaches to the study of symplectic 4-manifolds and algebraic surfaces combine a wide range of techniques and sources of inspiration. Gauge theory, symplectic geometry, pseudoholomorphic curves, singularity theory, moduli spaces, braid groups, monodromy, in addition to classical topology and algebraic geometry, combine to make this one of the most vibrant and active areas of research in mathematics. It is our hope that the five lectures of the present volume given at the C.I.M.E. Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, September 2-10, 2003 will be useful to people working in related areas of mathematics and will become standard references on these topics. The volume is a coherent exposition of an active field of current research focusing on the introduction of new methods for the study of moduli spaces of complex structures on algebraic surfaces, and for the investigation of symplectic topology in dimension 4 and higher.