arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Tobias Hirsch.
We show that two hypersurfaces in a manifold are related by a sequence of embedded cobordisms if and only if they represent the same homology class. By applying handle decompositions we turn these cobordisms into a sequence of embedded surgeries. Specializing to Seifert surfaces we obtain a conceptual proof that two Seifert surfaces of a fixed link are related by tube attachments and tube removals.
In this short expository note, we give a detailed proof of Markov's theorem on the unsolvability of the homeomorphism problem and of the existence of unrecognizable manifolds in all dimensions larger than 3.
We show that there exists an algorithm that takes as input two closed, simply connected, topological 4-manifolds and decides whether or not these 4-manifolds are homeomorphic. In particular, we explain in detail how closed, simply connected, topological 4-manifolds can be naturally represented by a Kirby diagram consisting only of 2-handles. This representation is used as input for our algorithm. Along the way, we develop an algorithm to compute the Kirby-Siebenmann invariant of a closed, simply connected, topological 4-manifold from any of its Kirby diagrams and describe an algorithm that decides whether or not two intersection forms are isometric. In a slightly different direction, we discuss the decidability of the stable classification of smooth manifolds with more general fundamental groups. Here we show that there exists an algorithm that takes as input two closed, oriented, smooth 4-manifolds with fundamental groups isomorphic to a finite group with cyclic Sylow 2-subgroup, an infinite cyclic group, or a group of geometric dimension at most 3 (in the latter case we additionally assume that the universal covers of both 4-manifolds are not spin), and decides whether or not these two 4-manifolds are orientation-preserving stably diffeomorphic.
We study modular subspaces corresponding to two deformation functors associated to an isolated singularity X_0: the functor Def_{X_0} of deformations of X_0 and the functor Def^s_{X_0} of deformations with section of X_0. After recalling some standard facts on the cotangent cohomology of analytic algebras and the general theory of deformations with section, we give several criteria for modularity in terms of the relative cotangent cohomology modules of a deformation. In particular it is shown that the modular strata for the functors Def_{X_0} and Def^s_{X_0} of quasihomogeneous complete intersection singularities coincide. Flatness conditions for the first cotangent cohomology modules of the deformation functors under consideration are then compared.