arXiv subjects

Christoforos Neofytidis

Publications and source records attributed to Christoforos Neofytidis.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Anosov diffeomorphisms of products I. Negative curvature and rational homology spheres

We show that various classes of products of manifolds do not support transitive Anosov diffeomorphisms. Exploiting the Ruelle-Sullivan cohomology class, we prove that the product of a negatively curved manifold with a rational homology sphere does not support transitive Anosov diffeomorphisms. We extend this result to products of finitely many negatively curved manifolds of dimensions at least three with a rational homology sphere that has vanishing simplicial volume. As an application of this study, we obtain new examples of manifolds that do not support transitive Anosov diffeomorphisms, including certain manifolds with non-trivial higher homotopy groups and certain products of aspherical manifolds.

math.DS↗

arXiv2018

Steenrod problem and the domination relation

We indicate how to combine some classical topology (Thom's work on the Steenrod problem) with some modern topology (simplicial volume) to show that every map between certain manifolds must have degree zero. We furthermore discuss a homotopy theoretic interpretation of parts of our proof, using Thom spaces and Steenrod powers.

math.AT↗

arXiv2017

Fundamental groups of aspherical manifolds and maps of non-zero degree

We define a new class of irreducible groups, called groups not infinite-index presentable by products or not IIPP. We prove that certain aspherical manifolds with fundamental groups not IIPP do not admit maps of non-zero degree from direct products. This extends previous results of Kotschick and Loeh, providing new classes of aspherical manifolds - beyond those non-positively curved ones which were predicted by Gromov - that do not admit maps of non-zero degree from direct products. A sample application is that an aspherical geometric 4-manifold admits a map of non-zero degree from a direct product if and only if it is a virtual product itself. This completes a characterization of the product geometries due to Hillman. Along the way we prove that for certain groups the property IIPP is a criterion for reducibility. This especially implies the vanishing of the simplicial volume of the corresponding aspherical manifolds. It is shown that aspherical manifolds with reducible fundamental groups do always admit maps of non-zero degree from direct products.

math.GT↗

arXiv2017

Ordering Thurston's geometries by maps of non-zero degree

We obtain an ordering of closed aspherical 4-manifolds that carry a non-hyperbolic Thurston geometry. As application, we derive that the Kodaira dimension of geometric 4-manifolds is monotone with respect to the existence of maps of non-zero degree.

math.GT↗

arXiv2017

Invariant incompressible surfaces in reducible 3-manifolds

We study the effect of the mapping class group of a reducible 3-manifold $M$ on each incompressible surface that is invariant under a self-homeomorphism of $M$. As an application of this study we answer a question of F. Rodriguez Hertz, M. Rodriguez Hertz and R. Ures: A reducible 3-manifold admits an Anosov torus if and only if one of its prime summands is either the 3-torus, the mapping torus of $-id$, or the mapping torus of a hyperbolic automorphism.

math.GT↗

arXiv2016

Degrees of self-maps of products

Every closed oriented manifold $M$ is associated with a set of integers $D(M)$, the set of self-mapping degrees of $M$. In this paper we investigate whether a product $M\times N$ admits a self-map of degree $d$, when neither $D(M)$ nor $D(N)$ contains $d$. We find sufficient conditions so that $D(M\times N)$ contains exactly the products of the elements of $D(M)$ with the elements of $D(N)$. As a consequence, we obtain manifolds $M\times N$ that do not admit self-maps of degree $-1$ (strongly chiral), that have finite sets of self-mapping degrees (inflexible) and that do not admit any self-map of degree $dp$ for a prime number $p$. Furthermore we obtain a characterization of odd-dimensional strongly chiral hyperbolic manifolds in terms of self-mapping degrees of their products.

math.AT↗

arXiv2014

Branched coverings of simply connected manifolds

We construct branched double coverings by certain direct products of manifolds for connected sums of copies of sphere bundles over the 2-sphere. As an application we answer a question of Kotschick and Loeh up to dimension five. More precisely, we show that: (1) every simply connected, closed four-manifold admits a branched double covering by a product of the circle with a connected sum of copies of $S^2 \times S^1$, followed by a collapsing map; (2) every simply connected, closed five-manifold admits a branched double covering by a product of the circle with a connected sum of copies of $S^3 \times S^1$, followed by a map whose degree is determined by the torsion of the second integral homology group of the target.

math.GT↗