Smoothing topological pseudo-isotopies of 4-manifolds

Abstract

Given a closed, smooth 4-manifold $X$ and self-diffeomorphism $f$ that is topologically pseudo-isotopic to the identity, we study the question of whether $f$ is moreover smoothly pseudo-isotopic to the identity. If the fundamental group of $X$ lies in a certain class, which includes trivial, free, and finite groups of odd order, we show the answer is always affirmative. On the other hand, we produce the first examples of manifolds $X$ and diffeomorphisms $f$ where the answer is negative. Our investigation is motivated by the question, which remains open, of whether there exists a self-diffeomorphism of a closed 4-manifold that is topologically isotopic to the identity, but not stably smoothly isotopic to the identity.