Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Lucas, Trent
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11104
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866918138333888512
author Lucas, Trent
author_facet Lucas, Trent
contents Given a finite group action on a smooth manifold, we study the following question: if two equivariant diffeomorphisms are isotopic, must they be equivariantly isotopic? Birman-Hilden and Maclachlan-Harvey proved the answer is "yes" for most surfaces. By contrast, we give a general criterion in higher dimensions under which there are many equivariant diffeomorphisms which are isotopic but not equivariantly isotopic. Examples satisfying this criterion include branched covers of split links and "stabilized" branched covers. We prove the result by constructing an invariant valued in the homology of a certain infinite cover of the manifold. We give applications to outer automorphism groups of free products and to group actions on manifolds which fiber over the circle.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_11104
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Isotopy versus equivariant isotopy in dimensions three and higher
Lucas, Trent
Geometric Topology
Given a finite group action on a smooth manifold, we study the following question: if two equivariant diffeomorphisms are isotopic, must they be equivariantly isotopic? Birman-Hilden and Maclachlan-Harvey proved the answer is "yes" for most surfaces. By contrast, we give a general criterion in higher dimensions under which there are many equivariant diffeomorphisms which are isotopic but not equivariantly isotopic. Examples satisfying this criterion include branched covers of split links and "stabilized" branched covers. We prove the result by constructing an invariant valued in the homology of a certain infinite cover of the manifold. We give applications to outer automorphism groups of free products and to group actions on manifolds which fiber over the circle.
title Isotopy versus equivariant isotopy in dimensions three and higher
topic Geometric Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11104