We give a classifying theory for LG-bundles, where LG is the loop group of a compact Lie group G, and present a calculation for the string class of the universal LG-bundle. We show that this class is in fact an equivariant cohomology class and give an equivariant differential form representing it. We then use the caloron correspondence to define (higher) characteristic classes for LG-bundles and to prove a result for characteristic classes for based loop groups for the free loop group. These classes have a natural interpretation in equivariant cohomology and we give equivariant differential form representatives for the universal case in all odd dimensions.

We consider orientable closed connected 3-manifolds obtained by performing Dehn surgery on the components of some classical links such as Borromean rings and twisted Whitehead links. We find geometric presentations of their fundamental groups and describe many of them as 2-fold branched coverings of the 3-sphere. Finally, we obtain some topological applications on the manifolds given by exceptional surgeries on hyperbolic 2-bridge knots.

We give a simple proof of the Lalonde–McDuff Conjecture for aspherical manifolds.

We study naturality properties of the transverse invariant in knot Floer homology under contact (+1)-surgery. This can be used as a calculational tool for the transverse invariant. As a consequence, we show that the Eliashberg–Chekanov twist knots En are not transversely simple for n odd and n > 3.

As shown by Gluck in 1962, the diffeotopy group of S1×S2 is isomorphic to ℤ2⊕ℤ2⊕ℤ2. Here an alternative proof of this result is given, relying on contact topology. We then discuss two applications to contact topology: (i) it is shown that the fundamental group of the space of contact structures on S1×S2, based at the standard tight contact structure, is isomorphic to ℤ; (ii) inspired by previous work of Fraser, an example is given of an integer family of Legendrian knots in S1×S2#S1×S2 (with its standard tight contact structure) that can be distinguished with the help of contact surgery, but not by the classical invariants (topological knot type, Thurston–Bennequin invariant, and rotation number).

The chain complexes underlying Floer homology theories typically carry a real-valued filtration, allowing one to associate to each Floer homology class a spectral number defined as the infimum of the filtration levels of chains representing that class. These spectral numbers have been studied extensively in the case of Hamiltonian Floer homology by Oh, Schwarz and others. We prove that the spectral number associated to any nonzero Floer homology class is always finite, and that the infimum in the definition of the spectral number is always attained. In the Hamiltonian case, this implies that what is known as the ‘nondegenerate spectrality’ axiom holds on all closed symplectic manifolds. Our proofs are entirely algebraic and apply to any Floer-type theory (including Novikov homology) satisfying certain standard formal properties. The key ingredient is a theorem about the existence of best approximations of arbitrary elements of finitely generated free modules over Novikov rings by elements of prescribed submodules with respect to a certain family of non-Archimedean metrics.

Let Mμ0 denote S2×S2 endowed with a split symplectic form normalized so that μ≥1 and σ(S2)=1. Given a symplectic embedding of the standard ball of capacity c∈(0,1) into Mμ0, consider the corresponding symplectic blow-up . In this paper, we study the homotopy type of the symplectomorphism group and that of the space of unparametrized symplectic embeddings of Bc into Mμ0. Writing ℓ for the largest integer strictly smaller than μ, and λ∈(0,1] for the difference μ−ℓ, we show that the symplectomorphism group of a blow-up of ‘small’ capacity c<λ is homotopically equivalent to the stabilizer of a point in Symp(Mμ0), while that of a blow-up of ‘large’ capacity c≥λ is homotopically equivalent to the stabilizer of a point in the symplectomorphism group of a non-trivial bundle obtained by blowing down . It follows that, for c<λ, the space is homotopy equivalent to S2 ×S2, while, for c≥λ, it is not homotopy equivalent to any finite CW-complex. A similar result holds for symplectic ruled manifolds diffeomorphic to . By contrast, we show that the embedding spaces and , if non-empty, are always homotopy equivalent to the spaces of ordered configurations and . Our method relies on the theory of pseudo-holomorphic curves in 4 -manifolds, on the computation of Gromov invariants in rational 4 -manifolds, and on the inflation technique of Lalonde and McDuff.

We develop the transversal harmonic theory for a transversally symplectic flow on a manifold and establish the transversal hard Lefschetz theorem. Our main results extend the cases for a contact manifold (H. Kitahara and H. K. Pak, ‘A note on harmonic forms on a compact manifold’, Kyungpook Math. J.43 (2003), 1–10) and for an almost cosymplectic manifold (R. Ibanez, ‘Harmonic cohomology classes of almost cosymplectic manifolds’, Michigan Math. J.44 (1997), 183–199). For the point foliation these are the results obtained by Brylinski (‘A differential complex for Poisson manifold’, J. Differential Geom.28 (1988), 93–114), Haller (‘Harmonic cohomology of symplectic manifolds’, Adv. Math.180 (2003), 87–103), Mathieu (‘Harmonic cohomology classes of symplectic manifolds’, Comment. Math. Helv.70 (1995), 1–9) and Yan (‘Hodge structure on symplectic manifolds’, Adv. Math.120 (1996), 143–154).

In this paper we describe the intersections between the balls of maximal symplectic packings of . This analysis shows the existence of singular points for maximal packings of by more than three equal balls. It also yields a construction of a class of very regular examples of maximal packings by five balls.

Let X be a compact connected Riemann surface and ξ a square root of the holomorphic contangent bundle of X. Sending any line bundle L over X of order two to the image of dim H0(X, ξ ⊗ L) − dim H0(X, ξ) in Z/2Z defines a quadratic form on the space of all order two line bundles. We give a topological interpretation of this quadratic form in terms of index of vector fields on X.

Let X be a closed, oriented, smooth 4-manifold with a finite fundamental group and with a non-vanishing Seiberg-Witten invariant. Let G be a finite group. If G acts smoothly and freely on X, then the quotient X/G cannot be decomposed as X1#X2 with (Xi) > 0, i = 1, 2. In addition let X be symplectic and c1(X)2 > 0 and b+2(X) > 3. If σ is a free anti-symplectic involution on X then the Seiberg-Witten invariants on X/σ vanish for all spinc structures on X/σ, and if η is a free symplectic involution on X then the quotients X/σ and X/η are not diffeomorphic to each other.

This paper gives non-embeddings and non-immersions for the real flag manifolds RF(1, 1, n–2), n > 3 and shows that Lam's immersions for n = 4 and 5 and Stong's result for n = 6 are the best possible.

Let ξbe an SO(n)-bundle over a simple connected manifold M with a spin structure Q → M. The string class is an obstruction to h1 the structure group LSpin(n) of the loop group bundle LQ → LM to the universal central extension of LSpain(n) by the circle. We prove that the string class vanishes if and only if 1/2 the first Pontrjagin clsss of values when M is a compact simply connected homogeneous space of rank one, a simpiy connected 4 dimensional manifold or a finite product space of those manifolds. This result is deduced by using the Eclesberg spectral sequence converging to the mod p cohomology of LM whose E2-term to the Hochschild homology of the mod p cohomology algebra of M. The key to the consideration is existence of a morphism of algebras, which is injective below degree 3, from an important graded commutator algebra into the Hochschild homology of a certain graded commutative algebra.

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of cylindrical ends in compact foliated 3-manifolds and give a sufficient condition for these ends to spiral onto a toral leaf.

The ordinary string class is an obstruction to lift the structure group LSpin(n) of a loop group bundle LQ → LM to the universal central extension of LSpin(n) by the circle. The vanishing problem of the ordinary string class and generalized string classes are considered from the viewpoint of the ring structure of the cohomology H*(M; R).

In this paper, we consider the relationship between the cohomologies of the basic differential forms and the transverse holonomy groupoid of a foliation. Applications to minimal models are given.

Bo Ju Jiang introduced an invariant lying in the braid group which is the best lower bound of the number of fixed points in a homotopy class of a given pair of self maps of a surface. Here we modify this construction to get a lower bound of the number of coincidence points of a pair of maps between two closed surfaces.

Kreck and Stolz recently exhibited exotic structures on a family of seven dimensional homogeneous spaces which are quotients of the compact Lie group SU3. We observe that there is an invariant obtained via the Pontrjagin–Thorn construction which detects these exotic structures in many cases.

In this paper, we construct from any given good (3,1)-dimensional manifold pair finitely many almost identical imitations of it whose exteriors are mutative hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The equivariant versions with the mutative reduction property on the isometry group are also established. As a corollary, we have finitely many hyperbolic 3-manifolds with the same volume and the same isometry group.

Let X be a compact affine real algebraic variety of dimension 4. We compute the Witt group of symplectic bilinear forms over the ring of regular functions from X to C. The Witt group is expressed in terms of some subgroups of the cohomology groups .