We show that closed $\mathbb{S}\text{ol}^{3}\times \mathbb{E}^{1}$-manifolds are Seifert fibred, with general fibre the torus, and base one of the flat 2-orbifolds $T,Kb,\mathbb{A},\mathbb{M}b,S(2,2,2,2),P(2,2)$ or $\mathbb{D}(2,2)$, and outline how such manifolds may be classified.

We give a method for constructing a Legendrian representative of a knot in $S^{3}$ which realizes its maximal Thurston–Bennequin number under a certain condition. The method utilizes Stein handle decompositions of $D^{4}$ , and the resulting Legendrian representative is often very complicated (relative to the complexity of the topological knot type). As an application, we construct infinitely many knots in $S^{3}$ each of which yields a reducible 3-manifold by a Legendrian surgery in the standard tight contact structure. This disproves a conjecture of Lidman and Sivek.

If P is a closed 3-manifold the covering space associated to a finitely presentable subgroup ν of infinite index in π1(P) is finitely dominated if and only if P is aspherical or . There is a corresponding result in dimension 4, under further hypotheses on π and ν. In particular, if M is a closed 4-manifold, ν is an ascendant, FP3, finitely-ended subgroup of infinite index in π1(M), π is virtually torsion free and the associated covering space is finitely dominated then either M is aspherical or or S3. In the aspherical case such an ascendant subgroup is usually Z, a surface group or a PD3-group.

We construct an orientable ribbon surface $F \subset B^4$ which is universal in the following sense: any orientable 4-manifold $M \cong B^4 \cup \text{1-handles} \cup \text{2-handles}$ can be represented as a cover of $B^4$ branched over $F$.

Let X be a closed, oriented, smooth 4-manifold with a finite fundamental group and with a non-vanishing Seiberg-Witten invariant. Let G be a finite group. If G acts smoothly and freely on X, then the quotient X/G cannot be decomposed as X1#X2 with (Xi) > 0, i = 1, 2. In addition let X be symplectic and c1(X)2 > 0 and b+2(X) > 3. If σ is a free anti-symplectic involution on X then the Seiberg-Witten invariants on X/σ vanish for all spinc structures on X/σ, and if η is a free symplectic involution on X then the quotients X/σ and X/η are not diffeomorphic to each other.

There are 11 closed 4-manifolds which admit geometries of compact type (S4, CP2 or S2 × S2) and two other closely related bundle spaces (S2 × S2 and the total space of the nontrivial RP2-bundle over S2). We show that the homotopy type of such a manifold is determined up to an ambiguity of order at most 4 by its quadratic 2-type, and this in turn is (in most cases) determined by the Euler characteristic, fundamental group and Stiefel-Whitney classes. In (at least) seven of the 13 cases, a PL 4-manifold with the same invariants as a geometric manifold or bundle space must be homeomorphic to it.

We extend earlier work relating asphericity and Euler characteristics for finite complexes whose fundamental groups have nontrivial torsion free abelian normal subgroups. In particular a finitely presentable group which has a nontrivial elementary amenable subgroup whose finite subgroups have bounded order and with no nontrivial finite normal subgroup must have deficiency at most 1, and if it has a presentation of deficiency 1 then the corresponding 2-complex is aspherical. Similarly if the fundamental group of a closed 4-manifold with Euler characteristic 0 is virtually torsion free and elementary amenable then it either has 2 ends or is virtually an extension of Z by a subgroup of Q, or the manifold is asphencal and the group is virtually poly- Z of Hirsch length 4.