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Igor Belegradek

Publications and source records attributed to Igor Belegradek.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2023

Point selections from Jordan domains in Riemannian Surfaces

Using fiber bundle theory and conformal mappings, we continuously select a point from the interior of Jordan domains in Riemannian surfaces. This selection can be made equivariant under isometries, and take on prescribed values such as the center of mass when the domains are convex. Analogous results for conformal transformations are obtained as well. It follows that the space of Jordan domains in surfaces of constant curvature admits an isometrically equivariant strong deformation retraction onto the space of round disks. Finally we develop a canonical procedure for selecting points from planar Jordan domains.

math.DG↗
arXiv2021

Four manifolds with no smooth spines

Let $W$ be a compact smooth $4$-manifold that deformation retract to a PL embedded closed surface. One can arrange the embedding to have at most one non-locally-flat point, and near the point the topology of the embedding is encoded in the singularity knot $K$. If $K$ is slice, then $W$ has a smooth spine, i.e., deformation retracts onto a smoothly embedded surface. Using the obstructions from the Heegaard Floer homology and the high-dimensional surgery theory, we show that $W$ has no smooth spines if $K$ is a knot with nonzero Arf invariant, a nontrivial L-space knot, the connected sum of nontrivial L-space knots, or an alternating knot of signature $<-4$. We also discuss examples where the interior of $W$ is negatively curved.

math.GT↗
arXiv2021

Diffeomorphic souls and disconnected moduli spaces of nonnegatively curved metrics

We give examples of open manifolds that carry infinitely many complete metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature such that they all have the same soul, and their isometry classes lie in different connected components of the moduli space. All previously known examples of this kind have souls of codimension one. In our examples the souls have codimensions three and two.

math.DG↗
arXiv2020

Hyperbolization and regular neighborhoods

We show that the hyperbolization of polyhedra pulls back regular neighborhoods of PL submanifolds. Applying this to the Riemannian version of the hyperbolization due to Ontaneda gives open complete manifolds of pinched negative curvature that are homotopy equivalent to closed smooth manifolds but contain no smooth spines. We also find open complete negatively pinched manifolds that are homotopy equivalent to closed non-smoothable manifolds.

math.DG↗
arXiv2019

Centers of disks in Riemannian manifolds

We prove the existence of a center, or continuous selection of a point, in the relative interior of $C^1$ embedded $k$-disks in Riemannian $n$-manifolds. If $k\le 3$ the center can be made equivariant with respect to the isometries of the manifold, and under mild assumptions the same holds for $k=4=n$. By contrast, for every $n\ge k\ge 6$ there are examples where an equivariant center does not exist. The center can be chosen to agree with any of the classical centers defined on the set of convex compacta in the Euclidean space.

math.DG↗
arXiv2018

Iterated circle bundles and infranilmanifolds

We give short proofs of the following two facts: Iterated principal circle bundles are precisely the nilmanifolds. Every iterated circle bundle is almost flat, and hence diffeomorphic to an infranilmanifold.

math.GT↗
arXiv2018

Moduli spaces of nonnegative sectional curvature and non-unique souls

We apply various topological methods to distinguish connected components of moduli spaces of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on open manifolds. The new geometric ingredient is that souls of nearby nonnegatively curved metrics are ambiently isotopic.

math.DG↗
arXiv2018

Index theory and deformations of open nonnegatively curved manifolds

We use an index-theoretic technique of Hitchin to show that the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative sectional curvature on certain open spin manifolds has nontrivial homotopy groups in infinitely many degrees. A new ingredient of independent interest is homotopy density of the subspace of metrics with cylindrical ends.

math.DG↗
arXiv2017

Obstructions to nonnegative curvature and rational homotopy theory

We establish a link between rational homotopy theory and the problem which vector bundles admit complete Riemannian metric of nonnegative sectional curvature. As an application, we show for a large class of simply-connected nonnegatively curved manifolds that, if C lies in the class and T is a torus of positive dimension, then "most" vector bundles over the product of C and T admit no complete nonnegatively curved metric.

math.DG↗
arXiv2017

Hyperspaces of smooth convex bodies up to congruence

We determine the homeomorphism type of the hyperspace of positively curved $C^\infty$ convex bodies in $\mathbb R^n$, and derive various properties of its quotient by the group of Euclidean isometries. We make a systematic study of hyperspaces of convex bodies that are at least $C^1$. We show how to destroy the symmetry of a family of convex bodies, and prove that this cannot be done modulo congruence.

math.GN↗
arXiv2017

Spaces of nonnegatively curved surfaces

We determine the homeomorphism type of the space of smooth complete nonnegatively curved metrics on surfaces of positive Euler characteristic equipped with the topology of $C^γ$ uniform convergence on compact sets, when $γ$ is infinite or is not an integer. If $γ=\infty$, the space of metrics is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space. If $γ$ is finite and not an integer, the space of metrics is homeomorphic to the countable power of the linear span of the Hilbert cube. We also prove similar results for some other spaces of metrics including the space of complete smooth Riemannian metrics on an arbitrary manifold.

math.DG↗
arXiv2017

Smoothness of Minkowski sum and generic rotations

Can the Minkowski sum of two compact convex bodies be made smoother by rotating one of them? We construct two infinitely differentiable strictly convex plane bodies such that after any generic rotation (in the Baire category sense) of one of the summands the Minkowski sum is not five times differentiable. On the other hand, if for one of the bodies the zero set of the Gaussian curvature has countable spherical image, we show that any generic rotation makes their Minkowski sum as smooth as the summands. We also improve and clarify some previous results on smoothness of the Minkowski sum.

math.DG↗
arXiv2017

Space of nonnegatively curved metrics and pseudoisotopies

Let V be an open manifold with complete nonnegatively curved metric such that the normal sphere bundle to a soul has no section. We prove that the souls of nearby nonnegatively curved metrics on V are smoothly close. Combining this result with some topological properties of pseudoisotopies we show that for many V the space of complete nonnegatively curved metrics has infinite higher homotopy groups.

math.DG↗
arXiv2015

Connectedness properties of the space of complete nonnegatively curved planes

We study the space of complete Riemannian metrics of nonnegative curvature on the plane equipped with the C^k topology. If k is infinite, we show that the space is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space. For any k we prove that the space cannot be made disconnected by removing a finite dimensional subset. A similar result holds for the associated moduli space. The proof combines properties of subharmonic functions with results of infinite dimensional topology and dimension theory. A key step is a characterization of the conformal factors that make the standard Euclidean metric on the plane into a complete metric of nonnegative sectional curvature.

math.DG↗
arXiv2015

Codimension two souls and cancellation phenomena

For each nonnegative integer we find an open (4m+9)-dimensional simply-connected manifold admitting complete nonnegatively curved metrics whose souls are non-diffeomorphic, homeomorphic, and have codimension 2. We give a diffeomorphism classification of the pairs (N, soul) when N is a nontrivial complex line bundle over the product of 7-sphere and complex projective plane: up to diffeomorphism there are precisely three such pairs, distinguished by their non-diffeomorphic souls.

math.DG↗
arXiv2014

Non-aspherical ends and nonpositive curvature

We obtain restrictions on the topology of a closed connected manifold B that bounds a (possibly noncompact) manifold whose interior V admits a complete Riemannian metric of nonpositive sectional curvature. If G denotes the fundamental group of B, then a sample result is that B must be aspherical and incompressible if one of the following is true: (1) V has finite volume and G is virtually nilpotent, (2) G is virtually nilpotent and has no proper torsion-free quotients, (3) G is isomorphic to a uniform, irreducible lattice of real rank > 1.

math.DG↗