Rational surfaces and symplectic 4-manifolds with one basic class

We present constructions of simply connected symplectic 4-manifolds which have (up to sign) one basic class and which fill up the geographical region between the half-Noether and Noether lines.Comment: Published by Algebraic and Geometric Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/AGTVol2/agt-2-19.abs.htm

Invariants for Lagrangian tori

We define an simple invariant of an embedded nullhomologous Lagrangian torus and use this invariant to show that many symplectic 4-manifolds have infinitely many pairwise symplectically inequivalent nullhomologous Lagrangian tori. We further show that for a large class of examples that lambda(T) is actually a C-infinity invariant. In addition, this invariant is used to show that many symplectic 4-manifolds have nontrivial homology classes which are represented by infinitely many pairwise inequivalent Lagrangian tori, a result first proved by S Vidussi for the homotopy K3-surface obtained from knot surgery using the trefoil knot in [Lagrangian surfaces in a fixed homology class: existence of knotted Lagrangian tori, J. Diff. Geom. (to appear)].Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol8/paper25.abs.htm

Surgery on Nullhomologous Tori

By studying the example of smooth structures on CP^2#3(-CP^2) we illustrate how surgery on a single embedded nullhomologous torus can be utilized to change the symplectic structure, the Seiberg-Witten invariant, and hence the smooth structure on a 4-manifold

Pinwheels and nullhomologous surgery on 4-manifolds with b^+ = 1

We present a method for finding embedded nullhomologous tori in standard 4-manifolds which can be utilized to change their smooth structure. As an application, we show how to obtain infinite families of simply connected smooth 4-manifolds with b^+ = 1 and b^- = 2,...,7, via surgery on nullhomologous tori embedded in the standard manifolds CP^2 # k (-CP^2), k=2,...,7.Comment: Final version. To appear in AG

Knots, Links, and 4-Manifolds

In this paper we investigate the relationship between isotopy classes of knots and links in S^3 and the diffeomorphism types of homeomorphic smooth 4-manifolds. As a corollary of this initial investigation, we begin to uncover the surprisingly rich structure of diffeomorphism types of manifolds homeomorphic to the K3 surface.Comment: 31 page

Double node neighborhoods and families of simply connected 4-manifolds with b^+=1

We introduce a new technique that is used to show that the complex projective plane blown up at 6, 7, or 8 points has infinitely many distinct smooth structures. None of these smooth structures admit smoothly embedded spheres with self-intersection -1, i.e. they are minimal. In addition, none these smooth structures admit an underlying symplectic structure. Shortly after the appearance of a preliminary version of this article, Park, Stipsicz, and Szabo used the techniques described herein to show that the complex projective plane blown up at 5 points has infinitely many distinct smooth structures. In the final section of this paper we give a somewhat different construction of such a family of examples.Comment: 11 pages, More typos and minor errors correcte