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Colloquium
Seminar information archive ～04/23｜Next seminar｜Future seminars 04/24～
| Organizer(s) | ASUKE Taro, TERADA Itaru, HASEGAWA Ryu, MIYAMOTO Yasuhito (chair) |
|---|---|
| URL | https://www.ms.u-tokyo.ac.jp/seminar/colloquium/index_e.html |
2006/06/23
17:00-18:00 Room #123 (Graduate School of Math. Sci. Bldg.)
Robert Gompf (University of Texas at Austin)
25 years of exotic $\\mathbb{R}^4s$
Robert Gompf (University of Texas at Austin)
25 years of exotic $\\mathbb{R}^4s$
[ Abstract ]
A quarter century ago, 4-manifold theory was revolutionized by the Fields-Medal winning breakthroughs of Freedman and Donaldson, with Freedman showing that topological 4-manifolds behave like their higher dimensional counterparts, but Donaldson showing that smooth 4-manifolds behave in a completely different way. The interplay between these theories produces results unique to dimension 4: A fixed topological 4-manifold often admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures, for which no classification scheme is yet available. The quintessential example is that in contrast with other dimensions, Euclidean 4-space admits exotic smooth structures. That is, there are "exotic R^4s" homeomorphic to R4 but not diffeomorphic to it. We will survey what has been learned about these strange creatures in the last quarter century, and exhibit an explicit example.
A quarter century ago, 4-manifold theory was revolutionized by the Fields-Medal winning breakthroughs of Freedman and Donaldson, with Freedman showing that topological 4-manifolds behave like their higher dimensional counterparts, but Donaldson showing that smooth 4-manifolds behave in a completely different way. The interplay between these theories produces results unique to dimension 4: A fixed topological 4-manifold often admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures, for which no classification scheme is yet available. The quintessential example is that in contrast with other dimensions, Euclidean 4-space admits exotic smooth structures. That is, there are "exotic R^4s" homeomorphic to R4 but not diffeomorphic to it. We will survey what has been learned about these strange creatures in the last quarter century, and exhibit an explicit example.
