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Bena Tshishiku

Publications and source records attributed to Bena Tshishiku.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Morse complexity of homology classes

The Morse complexity of a manifold is the minimal number of handles required to build it. We explore the Morse complexity of manifolds, bordisms, and homology classes, proving nontrivial upper bounds using surgery theory and lower bounds using index theory. Our most involved result shows that for Lie groups which admit discrete series representations, the Morse complexity of their locally symmetric spaces grows linearly with volume. This implies that such locally symmetric spaces do not admit open book decompositions.

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arXiv2025

Rotation index, Milnor--Munkres--Novikov pairing, and group actions on manifolds

We introduce an invariant of a pair of commuting invertible matrices that we call the rotation index. We apply this invariant, together with the Milnor--Munkres--Novikov pairing, to the study of some questions about group actions of $\mathbb{Z}^2$, specifically the Nielsen realization problem, higher-rank Anosov actions, and extending actions from the sphere $S^{d-1}$ to the disk $D^d$.

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arXiv2024

Mapping class groups of exotic tori and actions by ${\rm SL}_d(\mathbb Z)$

We determine for which exotic tori $\mathcal{T}$ of dimension $d\neq4$ the homomorphism from the group of isotopy classes of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of $\mathcal{T}$ to ${\rm SL}_d(\mathbb Z)$ given by the action on the first homology group is split surjective. As part of the proof we compute the mapping class group of all exotic tori $\mathcal{T}$ that are obtained from the standard torus by a connected sum with an exotic sphere. Moreover, we show that any nontrivial ${\rm SL}_d(\mathbb Z)$-action on $\mathcal{T}$ agrees on homology with the standard action, up to an automorphism of ${\rm SL}_d(\mathbb Z)$. When combined, these results in particular show that many exotic tori do not admit any nontrivial differentiable action by ${\rm SL}_d(\mathbb Z)$.

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arXiv2023

Surface mapping class group actions on 3-manifolds

For each circle bundle $S^1\to X\toΣ_g$ over a surface with genus $g\ge2$, there is a natural surjection $π:Homeo^+(X)\to Mod(Σ_g)$. When $X$ is the unit tangent bundle $UΣ_g$, it is well-known that $π$ splits. On the other hand $π$ does not split when the Euler number $e(X)$ is not divisible by the Euler characteristic $χ(Σ_g)$ by work of the second two authors. In this paper we show that this homomorphism does not split in many cases where $χ(Σ_g)$ divides $e(X)$.

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arXiv2023

Symmetries of exotic aspherical space forms

We study finite group actions on smooth manifolds of the form $M\#Σ$, where $Σ$ is an exotic $n$-sphere and $M$ is a closed aspherical space form. We give a classification result for free actions of finite groups on $M\#Σ$ when $M$ is 7-dimensional. We show that if $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ acts freely on $T^n\#Σ$, then $Σ$ is divisible by $p$ in the group of homotopy spheres. When $M$ is hyperbolic, we give examples $M\#Σ$ that admit no nontrivial smooth action of a finite group, even though Isom($M$) is arbitrarily large. Our proofs combine geometric and topological rigidity results with smoothing theory and computations with the Atiyah--Hirzebruch spectral sequence.

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arXiv2023

Mapping class groups of circle bundles over a surface

In this paper, we study the algebraic structure of mapping class group $Mod(X)$ of 3-manifolds $X$ that fiber as a circle bundle over a surface $S^1\rightarrow X\rightarrow S_g$. There is an exact sequence $1\rightarrow H^1(S_g)\rightarrow Mod(X)\rightarrow Mod(S_g)\rightarrow1$. We relate this to the Birman exact sequence and determine when this sequence splits.

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arXiv2022

Counting flat cycles in the homology of locally symmetric spaces

Locally symmetric spaces like $SL(n,\mathbb Z)\backslash SL_n(\mathbb R)/SO(n)$ contain immersed compact flat manifolds of dimension equal to the real rank. We give a lower bound for the contribution of these cycles to the homology of congruence covers. Similar results are proved for other families of locally symmetric spaces.

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arXiv2022

Nielsen Realization for sphere twists on 3-manifolds

For a 3-manifold M, the twist group Twist(M) is the subgroup of the mapping class group Mod(M) generated by twists about embedded 2-spheres. We study the Nielsen realization problem for subgroups of Twist(M). We prove that a nontrivial subgroup G<Twist(M) is realized by diffeomorphisms if and only if G is cyclic and M is a connected sum of lens spaces. We also apply our methods to the Burnside problem for 3-manifolds and show that Diff(M) does not contain an infinite torsion group when M is reducible and not a connected sum of lens spaces.

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arXiv2021

On groups with $S^2$ Bowditch boundary

We prove that a relatively hyperbolic pair $(G,P)$ has Bowditch boundary a 2-sphere if and only if it is a 3-dimensional Poincare duality pair. We prove this by studying the relationship between the Bowditch and Dahmani boundaries of relatively hyperbolic groups.

math.GR↗
arXiv2020

Geometric cycles and characteristic classes of manifold bundles

We produce new cohomology for non-uniform arithmetic lattices $Γ<SO(p,q)$ using a technique of Millson--Raghunathan. From this, we obtain new characteristic classes of manifold bundles with fiber a closed $4k$-dimensional manifold $M$ with indefinite intersection form of signature $(p,q)$. These classes are defined on a finite cover of $BDiff(M)$ and are shown to be nontrivial for $M=\#_g(S^{2k}\times S^{2k})$. In this case, the classes produced live in degree $g$ and are independent from the algebra generated by the stable (i.e. MMM) classes. We also give an application to bundles with fiber a K3 surface.

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arXiv2020

Arithmeticity of groups $\mathbb Z^n\rtimes\mathbb Z$

We study when the group $\mathbb Z^n\rtimes_A\mathbb Z$ is arithmetic where $A\in GL_n(\mathbb Z)$ is hyperbolic and semisimple. We begin by giving a characterization of arithmeticity phrased in the language of algebraic tori, building on work of Grunewald-Platonov. We use this to prove several more concrete results that relate the arithmeticity of $\mathbb Z^n\rtimes_A\mathbb Z$ to the reducibility properties of the characteristic polynomial of $A$. Our tools include algebraic tori, representation theory of finite groups, Galois theory, and the inverse Galois problem.

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arXiv2019

Characteristic classes of bundles of K3 manifolds and the Nielsen realization problem

Let $K$ be the K3 manifold. In this note, we discuss two methods to prove that certain generalized Miller--Morita--Mumford classes for smooth bundles with fiber $K$ are non-zero. As a consequence, we fill a gap in a paper of the first author, and prove that the homomorphism $Diff(K)\to π_0 Diff(K)$ does not split. One of the two methods of proof uses a result of Franke on the stable cohomology of arithmetic groups that strengthens work of Borel, and may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2019

Borel's stable range for the cohomology of arithmetic groups

In this note, we remark on the range in Borel's theorem on the stable cohomology of the arithmetic groups Sp(2n,Z) and SO(n,n;Z). This improves the range stated in Borel's original papers, an improvement that was known to Borel. Our main task is a technical computation involving the Weyl group action on roots and weights. This note originally appeared as the appendix to arXiv:1711.03139.

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arXiv2019

Symmetries of exotic negatively curved manifolds

Let $N$ be a smooth manifold that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to a closed hyperbolic manifold $M$. In this paper, we study the extent to which $N$ admits as much symmetry as $M$. Our main results are examples of $N$ that exhibit two extremes of behavior. On the one hand, we find $N$ with maximal symmetry, i.e. Isom($M$) acts on $N$ by isometries with respect to some negatively curved metric on $N$. For these examples, Isom($M$) can be made arbitrarily large. On the other hand, we find $N$ with little symmetry, i.e. no subgroup of Isom($M$) of "small" index acts by diffeomorphisms of $N$. The construction of these examples incorporates a variety of techniques including smoothing theory and the Belolipetsky-Lubotzky method for constructing hyperbolic manifolds with a prescribed isometry group.

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arXiv2018

Arithmeticity of the monodromy of some Kodaira fibrations

A question of Griffiths-Schmid asks when the monodromy group of an algebraic family of complex varieties is arithmetic. We resolve this in the affirmative for the class of algebraic surfaces known as Atiyah-Kodaira manifolds, which have base and fibers equal to complete algebraic curves. Our methods are topological in nature and involve an analysis of the "geometric" monodromy, valued in the mapping class group of the fiber.

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arXiv2018

Realization problems for diffeomorphism groups

We discuss recent results and open questions on the broad theme of (Nielsen) realization problems. Beyond realizing subgroups of mapping class groups, there are many other natural instances where one can ask if a surjection from a group of diffeomorphisms of a manifold to another group admits a section over particular subgroups. This survey includes many open problems, and some short proofs of new results that are illustrative of key techniques; drawing attention to parallels between problems arising in different areas.

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