Rips of 3-manifolds and the rationality conjecture of Nash in dimension 3 (Q1209295)

Two smooth (compact, closed, connected) 3-manifolds are equivalent modulo ``tears'' if they become diffeomorphic after the smooth blow-up of embedded links, relatively to the exceptional divisors. The main topological result is the complete classification of 3-manifolds modulo tears: Two such manifolds are equivalent iff: (a) the \(\pmod 2\) cohomologies are related by a graded linear isomorphism preserving the degree, \(w_ 1\) and the cup product with \(w_ 1\); (b) if \(w^ 2_ 1 = 0\) and the manifolds are not orientable, they share the invariants of suitable ``rolling-up'' quadratic forms, defined on the kernels of the inclusions of the \(\pmod 2\)-homologies of arbitrary embedded smooth characteristic surfaces. As a byproduct one gets a simple selfcontained proof of the so-called ``topological'' Nash conjecture of rationality in dimension 3: every 3- manifold is diffeomorphic to the 3-sphere up to a finite number of blow- up-down along smooth centres [recently G. Mikhalkin generalized this result to arbitrary dimensions]. Combining the topological results with the approximation techniques inaugurated by J. Nash himself, the other main result is established: a solution of the ``genuine'' Nash conjecture of rationality in dimension 3: For every 3-manifold \(V\) one exhibits: (a) a rational real algebraic set \(X\) having singular set \(S(X)\) of dimension 1, \(S(X)\) being non singular if \(V\) is orientable or its first Betti number\(\pmod 2\) is different from 1, (b) a stratified diffeomorphism of \(V\) onto \(X\) stratified by the singularities, (c) an algebraic resolution of singularities \(Y\) onto \(X\), that is an isomorphism onto \(X-S(X)\), where \(Y\) is an ``elementary'' non singular rational variety, that is obtained from the standard 3-sphere by a sequence of algebraic blow-up along non-singular centres.