Changing the world one researcher at a time: a skills and engagement approach to library research support

The Research Skills Team in the Library at the University of Birmingham is a unique formation of librarians, a postgraduate skills officer and postgraduate teaching assistants. The team’s clear focus is the researcher themselves, and their ‘lived experience’, from the moment of registration on a PhD course, through post-doctoral early career posts, to lecturer and professor level. The team’s mission is to be a seamless interface to the research services offered by the library, to demystify the increasingly complex scholarly communication system, and to advocate for initiatives such as open research. By taking a holistic approach to the researcher experience and orienting services accordingly, and by safeguarding staff time to finesse an ongoing suite of training opportunities, the library is demonstrating an ongoing commitment to facilitate high quality research

Some recent approaches in 4-dimensional surgery theory

It is well-known that an n-dimensional Poincar\'{e} complex $X^n$, $n \ge 5$, has the homotopy type of a compact topological $n$-manifold if the total surgery obstruction $s(X^n)$ vanishes. The present paper discusses recent attempts to prove analogous result in dimension 4. We begin by reviewing the necessary algebraic and controlled surgery theory. Next, we discuss the key idea of Quinn's approach. Finally, we present some cases of special fundamental groups, due to the authors and to Yamasaki

The Bryant-Ferry-Mio-Weinberger construction of generalized manifolds

Following Bryant, Ferry, Mio and Weinberger we construct generalized manifolds as limits of controlled sequences p_i: X_i --> X_{i-1} : i = 1,2,... of controlled Poincar\'e spaces. The basic ingredient is the epsilon-delta-surgery sequence recently proved by Pedersen, Quinn and Ranicki. Since one has to apply it not only in cases when the target is a manifold, but a controlled Poincar\'e complex, we explain this issue very roughly. Specifically, it is applied in the inductive step to construct the desired controlled homotopy equivalence p_{i+1}: X_{i+1} --> X_i. Our main theorem requires a sufficiently controlled Poincar\'e structure on X_i (over X_{i-1}). Our construction shows that this can be achieved. In fact, the Poincar\'e structure of X_i depends upon a homotopy equivalence used to glue two manifold pieces together (the rest is surgery theory leaving unaltered the Poincar\'e structure). It follows from the epsilon-delta-surgery sequence (more precisely from the Wall realization part) that this homotopy equivalence is sufficiently well controlled. In the final section we give additional explanation why the limit space of the X_i's has no resolution.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 22 April 200

Applications of controlled surgery in dimension 4: Examples

The validity of Freedman's disk theorem is known to depend only on the fundamental group. It was conjectured that it fails for nonabelian free fundamental groups. If this were true then surgery theory would work in dimension four. Recently, Krushkal and Lee proved a surprising result that surgery theory works for a large special class of 4-manifolds with free nonabelian fundamental groups. The goal of this paper is to show that this also holds for other fundamental groups which are not known to be good, and that it is best understood using controlled surgery theory of Pedersen--Quinn--Ranicki. We consider some examples of 4-manifolds which have the fundamental group either of a closed aspherical surface or of a 3-dimensional knot space. A more general theorem is stated in the appendix

Controlled surgery and L\mathbb{L}-homology

This paper presents an alternative approach to controlled surgery obstructions. The obstruction for a degree one normal map $(f,b): M^n \rightarrow X^n$ with control map $q: X^n \rightarrow B$ to complete controlled surgery is an element $\sigma^c (f, b) \in H_n (B, \mathbb{L})$, where $M^n, X^n$ are topological manifolds of dimension $n \geq 5$. Our proof uses essentially the geometrically defined $\mathbb{L}$-spectrum as described by Nicas (going back to Quinn) and some well known homotopy theory. We also outline the construction of the algebraically defined obstruction, and we explicitly describe the assembly map $H_n (B, \mathbb{L}) \rightarrow L_n (\pi_1 (B))$ in terms of forms in the case $n \equiv 0 (4)$. Finally, we explicitly determine the canonical map $H_n (B, \mathbb{L}) \rightarrow H_n (B, L_0)$

On minimal Poincar\'{e} 44-complexes

We consider two types of minimal Poincar\'e $4$-complexes. One is defined with respect to the degree $1$-map order. This idea was already present in our previous papers, and more systematically studied later by Hillman. The second type of minimal Poincar\'e $4$-complexes were introduced by Hambleton, Kreck and Teichner. It is not based on an order relation. In the present paper we study existence and uniqueness

s-Cobordism classification of 44-manifolds through the group of homotopy self-equivalences

The aim of this paper is to give an $s$-cobordism classification of topological $4$-manifolds in terms of the standard invariants using the group of homotopy self-equivalences. Hambleton and Kreck constructed a braid to study the group of homotopy self-equivalences of $4$-manifolds. Using this braid together with the modified surgery theory of Kreck, we give an $s$-cobordism classification for certain $4$-manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$, such that cd $\pi \leq 2$

Homotopy classification of PD4PD_4-complexes relative an order relation

We define an order relation among oriented $PD_4$-complexes. We show that with respect to this relation, two $PD_4$-complexes over the same complex are homotopy equivalent if and only if there is an isometry between the second homology groups. We also consider minimal objects of this relation.Comment: Monatsh. Math. (2015