Problems in Low-Dimensional Topology
Problems in Low-Dimensional Topology Edited by Rob Kirby Berkeley - 22 Dec 95 Contents 1 Knot Theory 7 2 Surfaces 85 3 3-Manifolds 97 4 4-Manifolds 179 5 Miscellany 259 Index of Conjectures 282 Index 284 Old Problem Lists 294 Bibliography 301 1 2 CONTENTS Introduction In April, 1977 when my first problem list [38,Kirby,1978] was finished, a good topologist could reasonably hope to understand the main topics in all of low dimensional topology. But at that time Bill Thurston was already starting to greatly influence the study of 2- and 3-manifolds through the introduction of geometry, especially hyperbolic. Four years later in September, 1981, Mike Freedman turned a subject, topological 4-manifolds, in which we expected no progress for years, into a subject in which it seemed we knew everything. A few months later in spring 1982, Simon Donaldson brought gauge theory to 4-manifolds with the first of a remarkable string of theorems showing that smooth 4-manifolds which might not exist or might not be diffeomorphic, in fact, didn’t and weren’t. Exotic R4’s, the strangest of smooth manifolds, followed. And then in late spring 1984, Vaughan Jones brought us the Jones polynomial and later Witten a host of other topological quantum field theories (TQFT’s). Physics has had for at least two decades a remarkable record for guiding mathematicians to remarkable mathematics (Seiberg–Witten gauge theory, new in October, 1994, is the latest example). Lest one think that progress was only made using non-topological techniques, note that Freedman’s work, and other results like knot complements determining knots (Gordon- Luecke) or the Seifert fibered space conjecture (Mess, Scott, Gabai, Casson & Jungreis) were all or mostly classical topology.
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