Fixed-point free circle actions on 4-manifolds

DOI10.2140/AGT.2015.15.3253MaRDI QIDQ907765zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors N. E. Zubov

Publication date 26 January 2016

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1303.0852

zbMATH Keywords

circle actionsfour-manifoldsgeometrization of 3-orbifoldsRips-Sela theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Topological methods in group theory (57M07) General geometric structures on low-dimensional manifolds (57M50) Compact Lie groups of differentiable transformations (57S15)

Abstract: This paper is concerned with fixed-point free $S^1$-actions (smooth or locally linear) on orientable 4-manifolds. We show that the fundamental group plays a predominant role in the equivariant classification of such 4-manifolds. In particular, it is shown that for any finitely presented group with infinite center, there are at most finitely many distinct smooth (resp. topological) 4-manifolds which support a fixed-point free smooth (resp. locally linear) $S^1$-action and realize the given group as the fundamental group. A similar statement holds for the number of equivalence classes of fixed-point free $S^1$-actions under some further conditions on the fundamental group. The connection between the classification of the $S^1$-manifolds and the fundamental group is given by a certain decomposition, called fiber-sum decomposition, of the $S^1$-manifolds. More concretely, each fiber-sum decomposition naturally gives rise to a Z-splitting of the fundamental group. There are two technical results in this paper which play a central role in our considerations. One states that the Z-splitting is a canonical JSJ decomposition of the fundamental group in the sense of Rips and Sela. Another asserts that if the fundamental group has infinite center, then the homotopy class of principal orbits of any fixed-point free $S^1$-action on the 4-manifold must be infinite, unless the 4-manifold is the mapping torus of a periodic diffeomorphism of some elliptic 3-manifold. The paper ends with two questions concerning the topological nature of the smooth classification and the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 4-manifolds admitting a smooth fixed-point free $S^1$-action.

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Cited in

(12)

• A characterization of the standard smooth structure of $K3$ surface
• Minimal genus in 4-manifolds with a free circle action
• FIXED POINT FREE CIRCLE ACTIONS AND FINITENESS THEOREMS
• Circle actions on 4-manifolds. I
• Circle actions on 4-manifolds. II
• On finite symmetries of simply connected four-manifolds
• Circle actions on 8-dimensional almost complex manifolds with 4 fixed points
• Action of free commuting involutions on closed two-dimensional manifolds
• Four-manifolds which admit {Z_p x Z_p} actions
• Fixed-point free SU(n)-actions on acyclic manifolds
• \(S^ 4\) does not have one fixed point actions
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6682924 (Why is no real title available?)

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