A counterexample to the (unstable) Gromov-Lawson-Rosenberg conjecture

We show an equivariant bordism principle for constructing metrics of positive scalar curvature that are invariant under a given group action. Furthermore, we develop a new codimension-2 surgery technique which removes singular strata from fixed point free $S^1$-manifolds while preserving equivariant positive scalar curvature. These results are applied to derive the following generalization of a result of Gromov and Lawson: Each closed fixed point free $S^1$-manifold of dimens...

J. Rosenberg's $\mathbb{S}^1$-stability conjecture states that a closed oriented manifold $X$ admits a positive scalar curvature metric iff $X\times \mathbb{S}^1$ admits a positive scalar curvature metric. We prove this conjecture whenever $kX$ is an oriented boundary for some natural number $k.$ This applies in particular if dim $X\not\equiv 0$ (mod $4$) or if $X$ is a $4$-manifold with zero signature.

Let $W$ be a closed area enlargeable manifold in the sense of Gromov-Lawson and $M$ be a noncompact spin manifold, we show that the connected sum $M\# W$ admits no complete metric of positive scalar curvature. When $W=T^n$, this provides a positive answer to the generalized Geroch conjecture in the spin setting.

Min-Oo's Conjecture is a positive curvature version of the positive mass theorem. Brendle, Marques, and Neves produced a perturbative counterexample to this conjecture. In 2021, Carlotto asked if it is possible to develop a novel gluing method in the setting of Min-Oo's Conjecture and in doing so produce new counterexamples. Here we answer this question in the affirmative. These new counterexamples are non-perturbative in nature; moreover, we also produce examples with more c...

We show that in every dimension $n \geq 8$, there exists a smooth closed manifold $M^n$ which does not admit a smooth positive scalar curvature ("psc") metric, but $M$ admits an $\mathrm{L}^\infty$-metric which is smooth and has psc outside a singular set of codimension $\geq 8$. This provides counterexamples to a conjecture of Schoen. In fact, there are such examples of arbitrarily high dimension with only single point singularities. In addition, we provide examples of $\mat...

We prove that there exists a metric of positive curvature in a three-sphere which admits a given torus knot as a closed geodesic.We also sketch a construction of a metric in a four sphere, very likely of positive curvature, which admits a totally geodesic projective plane with Euler number four. Surpisingly, the technique borrows a lot from the Mostow-Siu-Gromov-Thurston constuction of exotic negatively curved manifolds.

We give the first examples of rationally inessential but macroscopically large manifolds. Our manifolds are counterexamples to the Dranishnikov rationality conjecture. For some of them we prove that they do not admit a metric of positive scalar curvature, thus satisfy the Gromov positive scalar curvature conjecture. Fundamental groups of our manifolds are finite index subgroups of right angled Coxeter groups. The construction uses small covers of convex polyhedrons (or altern...

Let $N$ be a closed enlargeable manifold in the sense of Gromov-Lawson and $M$ a closed spin manifold of equal dimension, a famous theorem of Gromov-Lawson states that the connected sum $M\# N$ admits no metric of positive scalar curvature. We present a potential generalization of this result to the case where $M$ is nonspin. We use index theory for Dirac operators to prove our result.

Let M be a closed enlargeable spin manifold. We show non-triviality of the universal index obstruction in the K-theory of the maximal $C^*$-algebra of the fundamental group of M. Our proof is independent from the injectivity of the Baum-Connes assembly map for the fundamental group of M and relies on the construction of a certain infinite dimensional flat vector bundle out of a sequence of finite dimensional vector bundles on M whose curvatures tend to zero. Besides the wel...

We show how a suitably twisted Spin-cobordism spectrum connects to the question of existence of metrics of positive scalar curvature on closed, smooth manifolds by building on fundamental work of Gromov, Lawson, Rosenberg, Stolz and others. We then investigate this parametrised spectrum, compute its $mod~2$-cohomology and generalise the Anderson-Brown-Peterson splitting of the regular Spin-cobordism spectrum to the twisted case. Along the way we also describe the $mod~2$-coho...