Hokuto Konno, Masaki Taniguchi
We give constraints on smooth families of 4-manifolds with boundary using Manolescu's Seiberg-Witten Floer stable homotopy type, provided that the fiberwise restrictions of the families to the boundaries are trivial families of 3-manifolds. As an application, we show that, for a simply-connected oriented compact smooth 4-manifold $X$ with boundary with an assumption on the Frøyshov invariant or the Manolescu invariants $α, β, γ$ of $\partial X$, the inclusion map $\mathrm{Diff}(X,\partial) \hookrightarrow \mathrm{Homeo}(X,\partial)$ between the groups of diffeomorphisms and homeomorphisms which fix the boundary pointwise is not a weak homotopy equivalence. This combined with a classical result in dimension 3 implies that the inclusion map $\mathrm{Diff}(X) \hookrightarrow \mathrm{Homeo}(X)$ is also not a weak homotopy equivalence under the same assumption on $\partial X$. Our constraints generalize both of constraints on smooth families of closed 4-manifolds proven by Baraglia and a Donaldson-type theorem for smooth 4-manifolds with boundary originally due to Frøyshov.
Nobuo Iida, Hokuto Konno, Anubhav Mukherjee, Masaki Taniguchi
We define family versions of the invariant of 4-manifolds with contact boundary due to Kronheimer and Mrowka and use these to detect exotic diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds with boundary. Further, we show the existence of the first example of exotic 3-spheres in a smooth closed 4-manifold with diffeomorphic complements.
Hokuto Konno
For a simply-connected closed manifold $X$ of $\dim X \neq 4$, the mapping class group $π_0(\mathrm{Diff}(X))$ is known to be finitely generated. We prove that analogous finite generation fails in dimension 4. Namely, we show that there exist simply-connected closed smooth 4-manifolds whose mapping class groups are not finitely generated. More generally, for each $k>0$, we prove that there are simply-connected closed smooth 4-manifolds $X$ for which $H_k(B\mathrm{Diff}(X);\mathbb{Z})$ are not finitely generated. The infinitely generated subgroup of $H_k(B\mathrm{Diff}(X);\mathbb{Z})$ which we detect are topologically trivial, and unstable under the connected sum of $S^2 \times S^2$. The proof uses characteristic classes obtained from Seiberg-Witten theory.
Hokuto Konno, Jin Miyazawa, Masaki Taniguchi
We establish a version of Seiberg--Witten Floer $K$-theory for knots, as well as a version of Seiberg-Witten Floer $K$-theory for 3-manifolds with involution. The main theorems are 10/8-type inequalities for knots and for involutions. The 10/8-inequality for knots yields numerous applications to knots, such as lower bounds on stabilizing numbers and relative genera. We also give obstructions to extending involutions on 3-manifolds to 4-manifolds, and detect non-smoothable involutions on 4-manifolds with boundary.
Hokuto Konno
This article provides a survey of gauge theory for families, with a particular focus on its applications to diffeomorphism groups of $4$-manifolds that were developed during the period 2021--2025.
Hokuto Konno
This article surveys gauge theory for families and its applications to the comparison between the diffeomorphism group and the homeomorphism group of $4$-manifolds, up to 2021.
Hokuto Konno, Nobuhiro Nakamura
Using the Seiberg-Witten monopole equations, Baraglia recently proved that for most of simply-connected closed smooth $4$-manifolds $X$, the inclusions $\mathrm{Diff}(X) \hookrightarrow \mathrm{Homeo}(X)$ are not weak homotopy equivalences. In this paper, we generalize Baraglia's result using the $\mathrm{Pin}^{-}(2)$-monopole equations instead. We also give new examples of $4$-manifolds $X$ for which $π_{0}(\mathrm{Diff}(X)) \to π_{0}(\mathrm{Homeo}(X))$ are not surjections.
Tsuyoshi Kato, Hokuto Konno, Nobuhiro Nakamura
We show a rigidity theorem for the Seiberg-Witten invariants mod 2 for families of spin 4-manifolds. A mechanism of this rigidity theorem also gives a family version of 10/8-type inequality. As an application, we prove the existence of non-smoothable topological families of 4-manifolds whose fiber, base space, and total space are smoothable as manifolds. These non-smoothable topological families provide new examples of 4-manifolds $M$ for which the inclusion maps $\operatorname{Diff}(M) \hookrightarrow \operatorname{Homeo}(M)$ are not weak homotopy equivalences. We shall also give a new series of non-smoothable topological actions on some spin 4-manifolds.
Hokuto Konno
For several embedded surfaces with zero self-intersection number in 4-manifolds, we show that an adjunction-type genus bound holds for at least one of the surfaces under certain conditions. For example, we derive certain adjunction inequalities for surfaces embedded in $m\mathbb{CP}^2\# n(-\mathbb{CP}^2)$ ($m, n \geq 2$). The proofs of these results are given by studying a family of Seiberg-Witten equations.
Hokuto Konno, Abhishek Mallick, Masaki Taniguchi
We initiate the study of exotic Dehn twists along 3-manifolds $\neq S^3$ inside $4$-manifolds, which produces the first known examples of exotic diffeomorphisms of contractible 4-manifolds, more generally of definite 4-manifolds, and exotic diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds with $\neq S^3$ boundary that survive after one stabilization. We also construct the smallest closed 4-manifold known to support an exotic diffeomorphism. These exotic diffeomorphisms are the Dehn twists along certain Seifert fibered 3-manifolds. As a consequence, we get loops of diffeomorphisms of 3-manifolds that topologically extend to some 4-manifolds $X$ but not smoothly so, implying the non-surjectivity of $π_1(\mathrm{Diff}(X)) \to π_1(\mathrm{Homeo}(X))$. Our method uses $2$-parameter families Seiberg-Witten theory over $\mathbb{RP}^2$, while known methods to detect exotic diffeomorphisms used $1$-parameter families gauge-theoretic invariants. Using a similar strategy, we construct a new kind of exotic diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds, given as commutators of diffeomorphisms.
Hokuto Konno
We introduce an invariant of tuples of commutative diffeomorphisms on a 4-manifold using families of Seiberg-Witten equations. This is a generalization of Ruberman's invariant of diffeomorphisms defined using 1-parameter families of Seiberg-Witten equations. Our invariant yields an application to the homotopy groups of the space of positive scalar curvature metrics on a 4-manifold. We also study the extension problem for families of 4-manifolds using our invariant.
Hokuto Konno, Abhishek Mallick, Masaki Taniguchi
We introduce a method to detect exotic surfaces without explicitly using a smooth 4-manifold invariant or an invariant of a 4-manifold-surface pair in the construction. Our main tools are two versions of families (Seiberg-Witten) generalizations of Donaldson's diagonalization theorem, including a real and families version of the diagonalization. This leads to an example of a pair of exotically knotted $\mathbb{R}P^2$'s embedded in a closed 4-manifold whose complements are diffeomorphic, making it the first example of a non-orientable surface with this property. In particular, any invariant of a 4-manifold-surface pair (including invariants from real Seiberg-Witten theory such as Miyazawa's invariant) fails to detect such an exotic $\mathbb{R} P^2$. One consequence of our construction reveals that non-effective embeddings of corks can still be useful in pursuit of exotica. Precisely, starting with an embedding of a cork $C$ in certain a 4-manifold $X$ where the cork-twist does not change the diffeomorphism type of $X$, we give a construction that provides examples of exotically knotted spheres and $\mathbb{R}P^2$'s with diffeomorphic complements in $ C \# S^2 \times S^2 \subset X \# S^2 \times S^2$ or $C \# \mathbb{C}P^2 \subset X \# \mathbb{C}P^2 $. In another direction, we provide infinitely many exotically knotted embeddings of orientable surfaces, closed surface links, and 3-spheres with diffeomorphic complements in once stabilized corks, and show some of these surfaces survive arbitrarily many internal stabilizations. By combining similar methods with Gabai's 4D light-bulb theorem, we also exhibit arbitrarily large difference between algebraic and geometric intersections of certain family of 2-spheres, embedded in a 4-manifold.
David Baraglia, Hokuto Konno
We prove that a variety of examples of minimal complex surfaces admit exotic diffeomorphisms, providing the first known instances of exotic diffeomorphisms of irreducible 4-manifolds. We also give sufficient conditions for the boundary Dehn twist on a spin 4-manifold with $S^3$ boundary to be non-trivial in the relative mapping class group. This gives many new examples of non-trivial boundary Dehn twists.
Hokuto Konno, Jianfeng Lin
We prove that homological stability fails for the moduli space of any simply-connected closed smooth 4-manifold in any degree of homology, unlike what happens in all dimensions $\neq 4$. We detect also the homological discrepancy between various moduli spaces, such as topological and smooth moduli spaces of 4-manifolds, and moduli spaces of 4-manifolds with positive scalar curvature metrics. To prove these results, we use the Seiberg-Witten equations to construct a new characteristic class of families of 4-manifolds, which is unstable and detects the difference between the smooth and topological categories in dimension 4.
Hokuto Konno, Abhishek Mallick, Masaki Taniguchi
We provide an approach to study exotic phenomena in relatively small 4-manifolds that captures many different exotic behaviors under one umbrella. These phenomena include exotic smooth structures on 4-manifolds with $b_2=1$, examples of strong corks, and exotic codimension-$1$ embeddings into $\mathbb{C} P^2 \# - \mathbb{C} P^2$ that survive external stabilization. We also give a new way to detect a homeomorphism of a 4-manifold that is not topologically isotopic to any diffeomorphism and give lower bounds of relative genera of certain knots. Our primary tools are constraints on diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds obtained from families Seiberg-Witten theory.
Hokuto Konno
We construct characteristic classes of 4-manifold bundles using $SO(3)$-Yang-Mills theory and Seiberg-Witten theory for families.
Hokuto Konno, Masaki Taniguchi
We determine the local equivalence class of the Seiberg-Witten Floer stable homotopy type of a spin rational homology 3-sphere $Y$ embedded into a spin rational homology $S^{1} \times S^{3}$ with a positive scalar curvature metric so that $Y$ generates the third homology. The main tool of the proof is a relative Bauer-Furuta-type invariant on a periodic-end 4-manifold. As a consequence, we give obstructions to positive scalar curvature metrics on spin rational homology $S^{1} \times S^{3}$, typically described as the coincidence of various Frøyshov-type invariants. This coincidence also yields alternative proofs of two known obstructions by Jianfeng Lin and by the authors for the same class of 4-manifolds.
Hokuto Konno
We construct an invariant of closed ${\rm spin}^c$ 4-manifolds using families of Seiberg-Witten equations. This invariant is formulated as a cohomology class on a certain abstract simplicial complex consisting of embedded surfaces of a 4-manifold. We also give examples of 4-manifolds which admit positive scalar curvature metrics and for which this invariant does not vanish. This non-vanishing result of our invariant provides a new class of adjunction-type genus constraints on configurations of embedded surfaces in a 4-manifold whose Seiberg-Witten invariant vanishes.
Hokuto Konno
We prove that, for a closed oriented smooth spin 4-manifold $X$ with non-zero signature, the Dehn twist about a $(+2)$- or $(-2)$-sphere in $X$ is not homotopic to any finite order diffeomorphism. In particular, we negatively answer the Nielsen realization problem for each group generated by the mapping class of a Dehn twist. We also show that there is a discrepancy between the Nielsen realization problems in the topological category and smooth category for connected sums of copies of $K3$ and $S^{2} \times S^{2}$. The main ingredients of the proofs are Y. Kato's 10/8-type inequality for involutions and a refinement of it.
Hokuto Konno, Abhishek Mallick
Ruberman in the 90's showed that the group of exotic diffeomorphisms of closed 4-manifolds can be infinitely generated. We provide various results on the question of when such infinite generation can localize to a smaller embedded submanifold of the original manifold. Our results include: (1) All known infinitely generated groups of exotic diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds detected by families Seiberg-Witten theory do not localize to any topologically (locally-flatly) embedded rational homology balls in the ambient 4-manifold. (2) Many exotic diffeomorphisms cannot be obtained as Dehn twists along homology spheres (under mild assumptions). (3) There is no contractible 4-manifolds with Seifert fibered boundary that have a universal property for exotic diffeomorphisms analogous to a universal cork. In addition, there is no universal compact 4-manifold $W$ such that the set of exotic diffeomorphisms of a 4-manifold can localize to an embedding of $W$. (4) Certain infinite generations of exotic diffeomorphism groups do localize to a non-compact subset $V$ with a small Betti number, but not to any compact subset of $V$. (5) An analogous result holds for mapping class groups of 4-manifolds.