Group actions, corks and exotic smoothings of \(\mathbb{R}^4\) (Q1628414)

One of the most important results in 4-manifold topology is the existence of uncountably many exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\)'s -- smooth manifolds \(R\) homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{R}^4\). It is this paper that provides the first information on the diffeotopy group \(\mathcal{D}(R)\) of isotopy classes of diffeomorphisms of \(R\), and its orientation-preserving subgroup \(\mathcal{D}_+(R)\). The first significant result of this paper says that for each of uncountably many exotic \(R\), there are uncountably many elements in \(\mathcal{D}_+(R)\), contrary to the case of standard \(\mathbb{R}^4\) (\(\mathcal{D}_+(\mathbb{R}^4)\) is trivial). These diffeomorphisms are realized by various explicit group actions which also inject into the diffeotopy group \(\mathcal{D}^{\infty}(R)\) (and \(\mathcal{D}_+^{\infty}(R)\)) at infinity. There are also actions (diffeomorphisms) at infinity by non-finitely generated groups, for which no nontrivial element extends over the whole manifold. In contrast, it is proved that every diffeomorphism at infinity of the Freedman-Taylor universal \(\mathbb{R}^4\) (an exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\)) extends. A key technique is the introduction of the diffeomorphisms at infinity and the cut-and-paste construction of new manifold \(X_f\) from such a diffeomorphism \(f\) at infinity of an exotic \(R\) embedded in \(X\). Analogous to the cut-and-paste through diffeomorphisms of boundaries of compact manifolds, this new manifold \(X_f\) depends only on the isotopy class of the diffeomorphism \(f\) at infinity. Diffeomorphisms at infinity are subtle even for the standard \(\mathbb{R}^4\). It is proved that \(\mathcal{D}_+^{\infty}(\mathbb{R}^4)\) is trivial if and only if the 4-dimensional smooth Schoenflies Conjecture is true; and that \(\mathcal{D}_+^{\infty}(\mathbb{R}^4)\) is identified with the group of Schoenflies balls (which corresponds to the group of invertible elements of the abelian monoid of topological 4-spheres under connected sum). Therefore, a nontrivial diffeomorphism at infinity of \(\mathbb{R}^4\), if it exists, would produce an exotic \(\mathbb{S}^4\). The techniques also apply to many other open 4-manifolds and under broad hypotheses, cork twisting is shown equivalent to twisting on an exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\). Another interesting application is a result contrasting sharply with Taylor's result (every metric on a full exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\) admits a finite isometry group): (a) Each of uncountably many exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\)'s admits a complete metric with infinite isometry group; (b) There is a full exotic \(\mathbb{R}^4\) whose diffeotopy groups \(\mathcal{D}(R)\) and \(\mathcal{D}^{\infty}(R)\) are uncountable. Beyond the various important results, the paper also provides several interesting problems. It is an excellent reference on 4-manifold topology.