On topology of manifolds admitting gradient-like calscades with surface dynamics and on growth of the number of non-compact heteroclinic curves

We consider a class GSD(M3) of gradient-like diffeomorphisms with surface dynamics given on closed oriented manifold M3 of dimension three. Earlier it was proved that manifolds admitting such diffeomorphisms are mapping tori under closed orientable surface of genus g, and the number of non-compact heteroclinic curves of such diffeomorphisms is not less than 12g. In this paper, we determine a class of diffeomorphisms GSDR(M3)⊂GSD(M3) that have the minimum number of heteroclinic curves for a given number of periodic points, and prove that the supporting manifold of such diffeomorphisms is a Seifert manifold. The separatrices of periodic points of diffeomorphisms from the class GSDR(M3) have regular asymptotic behavior, in particular, their closures are locally flat. We provide sufficient conditions (independent on dynamics) for mapping torus to be Seifert. At the same time, the paper establishes that for any fixed g geq1, fixed number of periodic points, and any integer n≥12g, there exists a manifold M3 and a diffeomorphism f∈GSD(M3) having exactly n non-compact heteroclinic curves.

On Embedding of the Morse-Smale Diffeomorphisms in a Topological Flow

This review presents the results of recent years on solving of the Palis problem on finding necessary and sufficient conditions for the embedding of Morse-Smale cascades in topological flows. To date, the problem has been solved by Palis for Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms given on manifolds of dimension two. The result for the circle is a trivial exercise. In dimensions three and higher new effects arise related to the possibility of wild embeddings of closures of invariant manifolds of saddle periodic points that leads to additional obstacles for Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms to embed in topological flows. The progress achieved in solving of Paliss problem in dimension three is associated with the recently obtained complete topological classification of Morse-Smale diffeomorphisms on three-dimensional manifolds and the introduction of new invariants describing the embedding of separatrices of saddle periodic points in a supporting manifold. The transition to a higher dimension requires the latest results from the topology of manifolds. The necessary topological information, which plays key roles in the proofs, is also presented in the survey.

Basic notions

The aim of this chapter is to set the ground for the remainder of this work. We present our conventions and notations in Section 1.1. We review some basic facts about the topology of manifolds in Section 1.2. Lorentzian manifolds and spacetimes are introduced in Section 1.3. Elementary facts concerning the Levi-Civita connection and its curvature are reviewed in Section 1.4. Some properties of geodesics, as needed in the remainder of this book, are presented in Section 1.5. The formalism of moving frames is outlined in Section 1.6, where it is used to calculate the curvature of metrics of interest.

Étale Steenrod operations and the Artin–Tate pairing

We prove a 1966 conjecture of Tate concerning the Artin–Tate pairing on the Brauer group of a surface over a finite field, which is the analog of the Cassels–Tate pairing. Tate asked if this pairing is always alternating and we find an affirmative answer, which is somewhat surprising in view of the work of Poonen–Stoll on the Cassels–Tate pairing. Our method is based on studying a connection between the Artin–Tate pairing and (generalizations of) Steenrod operations in étale cohomology. Inspired by an analogy to the algebraic topology of manifolds, we develop tools allowing us to calculate the relevant étale Steenrod operations in terms of characteristic classes.

On Sectional Curvature of Metric Connection with Vectorial Torsion

Papers of many mathematicians are devoted to the study of semisymmetric connections or metric connections with vector torsion on Riemannian manifolds. This type of connectivity is one of the three main types discovered by E. Cartan and finds its application in modern physics, geometry, and topology of manifolds. Geodesic lines and the curvature tensor of a given connection were studied by I. Agricola, K. Yano, and other mathematicians. In particular, K. Yano proved an important theorem on the connection of conformal deformations and metric connections with vector torsion. Namely: a Riemannian manifold admits a metric connection with vector torsion and the curvature tensor being equal to zero if and only if it is conformally flat. Although the curvature tensor of a hemisymmetric connection has a smaller number of symmetries compared to the Levi-Civita connection, it is still possible to define the concept of sectional curvature in this case. The question naturally arises about the difference between the sectional curvature of a semisymmetric connection and the sectional curvature of a Levi-Civita connection.This paper is devoted to the study of this issue, and the authors find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the sectional curvature of the semisymmetric connection to coincide with the sectional curvature of the Levi-Civita connection. Non-trivial examples of hemisymmetric connections are constructed when possible.