arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D. Kotschick.
We show that mapping class groups of surfaces of genus at least two contain elements of infinite order that are not conjugate to their inverses, but whose powers have bounded torsion lengths. In particular every homogeneous quasi-homomorphism vanishes on such an element, showing that elements of infinite order not conjugate to their inverses cannot be separated by quasi-homomorphisms.
Making use of the extended flux homomorphism on the group of symplectomorphisms of a closed oriented surface of genus at least 2, we introduce new characteristic classes of foliated surface bundles with symplectic, equivalently area-preserving, total holonomy. These characteristic classes are stable with respect to the genus and we show that they are highly non-trivial. We also prove that the second homology of the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms equipped with the discrete topology is very large.
We prove that all minimal symplectic four-manifolds are essentially irreducible. We also clarify the relationship between holomorphic and symplectic minimality of Kähler surfaces. This leads to a new proof of the deformation-invariance of holomorphic minimality for complex surfaces with even first Betti number which are not Hirzebruch surfaces.
We study the flux homomorphism for closed forms of arbitrary degree, with special emphasis on volume forms and on symplectic forms. The volume flux group is an invariant of the underlying manifold, whose non-vanishing implies that the manifold resembles one with a circle action with homologically essential orbits.
We prove that the minimal Euler characteristic of a closed symplectic four-manifold with given fundamental group is often much larger than the minimal Euler characteristic of almost complex closed four-manifolds with the same fundamental group. In fact, the difference between the two is arbitrarily large for certain groups.
We prove that closed symplectic four-manifolds do not admit any smooth free circle actions with contractible orbits, without assuming that the actions preserve the symplectic forms. In higher dimensions such actions by symplectomorphisms do exist, and we give explicit examples based on a construction of Fernandez, Gray and Morgan. We also prove that the only compact complex surfaces admitting free circle actions with contractible orbits are primary Hopf surfaces.
We study the geometry of manifolds carrying symplectic pairs consisting of two closed 2-forms of constant ranks, whose kernel foliations are complementary. Using a variation of the construction of Boothby and Wang we build contact-symplectic and contact pairs from symplectic pairs.
We prove Gray--Moser stability theorems for complementary pairs of forms of constant class defining symplectic pairs, contact-symplectic pairs and contact pairs. We also consider the case of contact-symplectic and contact-contact structures, in which the constant class condition on a one-form is replaced by the condition that its kernel hyperplane distribution have constant class in the sense of E. Cartan.
We give elementary applications of quasi-homomorphisms to growth problems in groups. A particular case concerns the number of torsion elements required to factorise a given element in the mapping class group of a surface.
We prove that many simply connected symplectic four-manifolds dissolve after connected sum with only one copy of $S^{2}\times S^{2}$. For any finite group G that acts freely on the three-sphere we construct closed smooth four-manifolds with fundamental group G which do not admit metrics of positive scalar curvature, but whose universal covers do admit such metrics.
We prove that for every natural number k there are simply connected topological four-manifolds which have at leat k distinct smooth structures supporting Einstein metrics, and also have infinitely many distinct smooth structures not supporting Einstein metrics. Moreover, all these smooth structures become diffeomorphic after connected sum with only one copy of the complex projective plane. We prove that manifolds with these properties cover a large geographical area.
We introduce the notion of a special monopole class on a four-manifold. This is used to prove restrictions on the smooth structures of Einstein manifolds. As an application we prove that there are Einstein four-manifolds which are simply connected, spin, and satisfy the strict Hitchin--Thorpe inequality, and which are homeomorphic to manifolds without Einstein metrics. In the Appendix, written with J. Wehrheim, we use special monopole classes to discuss the classification of Ricci-flat four-manifolds.
For any closed oriented surface F of genus at least three, we prove the existence of foliated F-bundles over surfaces such that the signatures of the total spaces are non-zero. We can arrange that the total holonomy of the horizontal foliations preserve a prescribed symplectic form on the fiber. We relate the cohomology class represented by the transverse symplectic form to a crossed homomorphism from the symplectomophism group of the fiber to its first real cohomology. This crossed homomorphism extends the flux homomorphism defined on the identity component of the symplectomorphism group.
We prove upper bounds for the number of critical points in semistable symplectic Lefschetz fibrations. We also obtain a new lower bound for the number of nonseparting vanishing cycles in Lefschetz pencils, and reprove the known lower bounds for the commutator lengths of Dehn twists.
We generalise the average asymptotic linking number of a pair of divergence-free vector fields on homology three-spheres by considering the linking of a divergence-free vector field on a manifold of arbitrary dimension with a codimension two foliation endowed with an invariant transverse measure. We prove that the average asymptotic linking number is given by an integral of Hopf type. Considering appropriate vector fields and measured foliations, we obtain an ergodic interpretation of the Godbillon-Vey invariant of a family of codimension one foliations discussed in math.GT/0111137.
The classical Godbillon-Vey invariant is an odd degree cohomology class that is a cobordism invariant of a single foliation. Here we investigate cohomology classes of even degree that are cobordism invariants of (germs of) 1-parameter families of foliations.
We prove that all generalised symmetric spaces of compact simple Lie groups are formal in the sense of Sullivan. Nevertheless, many of them, including all the non-symmetric flag manifolds, do not admit Riemannian metrics for which all products of harmonic forms are harmonic.
We give explicit examples of degree 3 cohomology classes not Poincare dual to submanifolds, and discuss the realisability of homology classes by submanifolds with Spin-C normal bundles.