Cohomotopy sets of 4-manifolds

Elementary geometric arguments are used to compute the group of homotopy classes of maps from a 4-manifold X to the 3-sphere, and to enumerate the homotopy classes of maps from X to the 2-sphere. The former completes a project initiated by Steenrod in the 1940's, and the latter provides geometric arguments for and extensions of recent homotopy theoretic results of Larry Taylor. These two results complete the computation of all the cohomotopy sets of closed oriented 4-manifolds and provide a framework for the study of Morse 2-functions on 4-manifolds, a subject that has garnered considerable recent attention.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures; this version to appear in the FreedmanFest (G&T Monographs, Volume 18

On metrics of curvature 1 with four conic singularities on tori and on the sphere

We discuss conformal metrics of curvature 1 on tori and on the sphere, with four conic singularities whose angles are multiples of pi/2. Besides some general results we study in detail the family of such symmetric metrics on the sphere, with angles (pi/2,3pi/2,pi/2,3pi/2).Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

The geometry of dynamical triangulations

We discuss the geometry of dynamical triangulations associated with 3-dimensional and 4-dimensional simplicial quantum gravity. We provide analytical expressions for the canonical partition function in both cases, and study its large volume behavior. In the space of the coupling constants of the theory, we characterize the infinite volume line and the associated critical points. The results of this analysis are found to be in excellent agreement with the MonteCarlo simulations of simplicial quantum gravity. In particular, we provide an analytical proof that simply-connected dynamically triangulated 4-manifolds undergo a higher order phase transition at a value of the inverse gravitational coupling given by 1.387, and that the nature of this transition can be concealed by a bystable behavior. A similar analysis in the 3-dimensional case characterizes a value of the critical coupling (3.845) at which hysteresis effects are present.Comment: 166 pages, Revtex (latex) fil