An atomic approach to Wall-type stabilization problems

Publication date 20 February 2023

Topological quantum field theories (aspects of differential topology) (57R56) Differentiable structures in differential topology (57R55) Surgery and handlebodies (57R65) Homology theories in knot theory (Khovanov, Heegaard-Floer, etc.) (57K18)

Abstract: Wall-type stabilization problems investigate the collapse of exotic 4-dimensional phenomena under stabilization operations (e.g., taking connected sums with

S^{2} i m e s S^{2}

). We propose an elementary approach to these problems, providing a construction of exotic 4-manifolds and knotted surfaces that are candidates to remain exotic after stabilization -- including examples in the setting of closed, simply connected 4-manifolds. As a proof of concept, we show this construction yields exotic surfaces in the 4-ball that remain exotic after (internal) stabilization, detected by the cobordism maps on universal Khovanov homology. We conclude by comparing these Khovanov-theoretic obstructions for surfaces to the Floer-theoretic counterparts for exotic 4-manifolds obtained as their branched covers, suggesting a bridge via Lin's spectral sequence from Bar-Natan homology to involutive monopole Floer homology.

This page was built for publication: An atomic approach to Wall-type stabilization problems

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6427079)