The topology of closed manifolds with quasi-constant sectional curvature

We prove that closed manifolds admitting a generic metric whose sectional curvature is locally quasi-constant are graphs of space forms. In the more general setting of QC spaces where sets of isotropic points are arbitrary, under suitable positivity assumption and for torsion-free fundamental groups they are still diffeomorphic to connected sums of spherical space forms and spherical bundles over the circle.Comment: 56p, JEP to appea

Cubulations, immersions, mappability and a problem of Habegger

The aim of this paper (inspired from a problem of Habegger) is to describe the set of cubical decompositions of compact manifolds mod out by a set of combinatorial moves analogous to the bistellar moves considered by Pachner, which we call bubble moves. One constructs a surjection from this set onto the the bordism group of codimension one immersions in the manifold. The connected sums of manifolds and immersions induce multiplicative structures which are respected by this surjection. We prove that those cubulations which map combinatorially into the standard decomposition of ${\bf R}^n$ for large enough $n$ (called mappable), are equivalent. Finally we classify the cubulations of the 2-sphere.Comment: Revised version, Ann.Sci.Ecole Norm. Sup. (to appear

Surface cubications mod flips

Let $\Sigma$ be a compact surface. We prove that the set of surface cubications modulo flips, up to isotopy, is in one-to-one correspondence with $\Z/2\Z\oplus H_1(\Sigma,\Z/2\Z)$.Comment: revised version, 18

On the TQFT representations of the mapping class groups

We prove that the image of the mapping class group by the representations arising in the SU(2)-TQFT is infinite, provided that the genus is bigger than 2 and the level r of the theory is different from 2,3,4,6. In particular the quotient of the mapping class group by the normaizer of the r-th power of a Dehn twist is infinite if the genus is at least 3 and r is bigger than 12.Comment: 21 pages, 6 eps figures, Latex figures (to appear Pacific.J.Math.

Global classification of isolated singularities in dimensions (4,3)(4,3) and (8,5)(8,5)

We characterize those closed $2k$-manifolds admitting smooth maps into $(k+1)$-manifolds with only finitely many critical points, for $k\in\{2,4\}$. We compute then the minimal number of critical points of such smooth maps for $k=2$ and, under some fundamental group restrictions, also for $k=4$. The main ingredients are King's local classification of isolated singularities, decomposition theory, low dimensional cobordisms of spherical fibrations and 3-manifolds topology.Comment: 31p, revised version, Ann. Scuola Norm. Sup. Pisa Cl. Sci., to appea

On the groupoid of transformations of rigid structures on surfaces

We prove that the groupoid of transformations of rigid structures on surfaces has a finite presentation as a 2-groupoid establishing a result first conjectured by G.Moore and N.Seiberg. An alternative proof was given by B.Bakalov and A.Kirillov Jr. We present some applications to TQFTs. This is also related to recent work on the Grothendieck-Teichmuller groupoid by P.Lochak, A.Hatcher and L.Schneps.Comment: 38 pages, 35 eps figure