arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to András I. Stipsicz.
We show that if a manifold M admits a contact structure, then so does M\times S^2. Our proof relies on surgery theory, a theorem of Eliashberg on contact surgery and a theorem of Bourgeois showing that if M admits a contact structure then so does M\times T^2.
We provide an intergral lift of the combinatorial definition of Heegaard Floer homology for nice diagrams, and show that the proof of independence using convenient diagrams adapts to this setting.
Suppose that $C=(C_1,..., C_m)$ is a configuration of 2-dimensional symplectic submanifolds in a symplectic 4-manifold $(X,ω)$ with connected, negative definite intersection graph $Γ_C$. We show that by replacing an appropriate neighborhood of $\cup C_i$ with a smoothing $W_S$ of a normal surface singularity $(S, 0)$ with resolution graph $Γ_C$, the resulting 4-manifold admits a symplectic structure. This operation generalizes the rational blow-down operation of Fintushel-Stern for other configurations, and therefore extends Symington's result about symplectic rational blow-downs.
We show that the presence of a plastikstufe induces a certain degree of flexibility in contact manifolds of dimension 2n+1>3. More precisely, we prove that every Legendrian knot whose complement contains a "nice" plastikstufe can be destabilized (and, as a consequence, is loose). As an application, it follows in certain situations that two non-isomorphic contact structures become isomorphic after connect-summing with a manifold containing a plastikstufe.
Using the link surgery formula for Heegaard Floer homology we find a spectral sequence from the lattice homology of a plumbing tree to the Heegaard Floer homology of the corresponding 3-manifold. This spectral sequence shows that for graphs with at most two "bad" vertices, the lattice homology is isomorphic to the Heegaard Floer homology of the underlying 3-manifold.
We show that by performing the Gluck twist along the 2-knot $K^2_{pq}$ derived from two ribbon presentations of the ribbon 1-knot $K(p,q)$ we get the standard 4-sphere $S^4$. In the proof we apply Kirby calculus.
Two constructions of contact manifolds are presented: (i) products of S^1 with manifolds admitting a suitable decomposition into two exact symplectic pieces and (ii) fibre connected sums along isotropic circles. Baykur has found a decomposition as required for (i) for all closed, oriented 4-manifolds. As a corollary, we can show that all closed, oriented 5-manifolds that are Cartesian products of lower-dimensional manifolds carry a contact structure. For symplectic 4-manifolds we exhibit an alternative construction of such a decomposition; this gives us control over the homotopy type of the corresponding contact structure. In particular, we prove that CP^2 \times S^1 admits a contact structure in every homotopy class of almost contact structures. The existence of contact structures is also established for a large class of 5-manifolds with fundamental group Z_2.
We define invariants of null--homologous Legendrian and transverse knots in contact 3--manifolds. The invariants are determined by elements of the knot Floer homology of the underlying smooth knot. We compute these invariants, and show that they do not vanish for certain non--loose knots in overtwisted 3--spheres. Moreover, we apply the invariants to find transversely non--simple knot types in many overtwisted contact 3--manifolds.
For any knot T transverse to a given contact structure on a 3-manifold, we exhibit a Legendrian two-component link such that T equals the transverse push-off of one of the link components and contact (+1)-surgery on the link has the same effect as a Lutz twist along T.
In two previous papers, the two first-named authors introduced a notion of contact r-surgery along Legendrian knots in contact 3-manifolds. They also showed how (at least in principle) to convert any contact r-surgery into a sequence of contact plus or minus 1 surgeries, and used this to prove that any (closed) contact 3-manifold can be obtained from the standard contact structure on the 3-sphere by a sequence of such surgeries. In the present paper, we give a shorter proof of that result and a more explicit algorithm for turning a contact r-surgery into plus or minus 1 surgeries. We use this to give explicit surgery diagrams for all contact structures on the 3-sphere and S^1\times S^2, as well as all overtwisted contact structures on arbitrary closed, orientable 3-manifolds. This amounts to a new proof of the Lutz-Martinet theorem that each homotopy class of 2-plane fields on such a manifold is represented by a contact structure.
We construct noncomplex smooth 4-manifolds which admit genus-2 Lefschetz fibrations over S^2. The fibrations are necessarily hyperelliptic, and the resulting 4-manifolds are not even homotopy equivalent to complex surfaces. Furthermore, these examples show that fiber sums of holomorphic Lefschetz fibrations do not necessarily admit complex structures.
In this note we show that there are 4-manifolds not containing Gompf nucleus $N_2$; in this way we answer Problem 4.98 of Kirby's problem list in the negative.