arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Slawomir Kwasik.
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.
Two simple "simplicial approximation" tricks are invoked to prove basic results involving (co)-homology with local coefficients.
The decomposability of a Cartesian product of two nondecomposable manifolds into products of lower dimensional manifolds is studied. For 3-manifolds we obtain an analog of a result due to Borsuk for surfaces, and in higher dimensions we show that similar analogs do not exist unless one imposes further restrictions such as simple connectivity.
We study the Whitehead torsions of inertial h-cobordisms, and identify various types representing a nested sequence of subsets of the Whitehead group. A number of examples are given to show that these subsets are all different in general.
The Cartesian squares (powers) of manifolds with the fixed point property (f.p.p.) are considered. Examples of manifolds with the f.p.p. are constructed whose symmetric squares fail to have the f.p.p..
If a finite group acts topologically, faithfully and orientation preservingly on R^3, then it is isomorphic to a subgroup of SO(3).
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.
This paper discusses topological and locally linear actions of finite groups on $S^4$. Local linearity of the orientation preserving actions on $S^4$ forces the group to be a subgroup of $SO(5)$. On the other hand, orientation reversing topological actions of "exotic" groups $G$ (i.e. $G\not\subset O(5)$) on $S^4$ are constructed, and local linearity and stable smoothability of the actions are studied.
We study the homeomorphism types of manifolds h-cobordant to a fixed one. Our investigation is partly motivated by the notion of special manifolds introduced by Milnor in his study of lens spaces. In particular we revisit and clarify some of the claims concerning h-cobordisms of these manifolds.
A study on the relation between the smooth structure of a symplectic homotopy K3 surface and its symplectic symmetries is initiated. A measurement of exoticness of a symplectic homotopy K3 surface is introduced, and the influence of an effective action of a K3 group via symplectic symmetries is investigated. It is shown that an effective action by various maximal symplectic K3 groups forces the corresponding homotopy K3 surface to be minimally exotic with respect to our measure. (However, the standard K3 is the only known example of such minimally exotic homotopy K3 surfaces.) The possible structure of a finite group of symplectic symmetries of a minimally exotic homotopy K3 surface is determined and future research directions are indicated.
Smooth and symplectic symmetries of an infinite family of distinct exotic $K3$ surfaces are studied, and comparison with the corresponding symmetries of the standard $K3$ is made. The action on the $K3$ lattice induced by a smooth finite group action is shown to be strongly restricted, and as a result, nonsmoothability of actions induced by a holomorphic automorphism of a prime order $\geq 7$ is proved and nonexistence of smooth actions by several $K3$ groups is established (included among which is the binary tetrahedral group $T_{24}$ which has the smallest order). Concerning symplectic symmetries, the fixed-point set structure of a symplectic cyclic action of a prime order $\geq 5$ is explicitly determined, provided that the action is homologically nontrivial.
A study of symplectic actions of a finite group $G$ on smooth 4-manifolds is initiated. The central new idea is the use of $G$-equivariant Seiberg-Witten-Taubes theory in studying the structure of the fixed-point set of these symmetries. The main result in this paper is a complete description of the fixed-point set structure (and the action around it) of a symplectic cyclic action of prime order on a minimal symplectic 4-manifold with $c_1^2=0$. Comparison of this result with the case of locally linear topological actions is made. As an application of these considerations, the triviality of many such actions on a large class of 4-manifolds is established. In particular, we show the triviality of homologically trivial symplectic symmetries of a $K3$ surface (in analogy with holomorphic automorphisms). Various examples and comments illustrating our considerations are also included.