• Bulletin of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.1927-1933
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• 2017

We prove that there are rational homology balls $B_p$ smoothly embedded in the 2-handlebodies associated to certain knots. Furthermore we show that, if we rationally blow up the 2-handlebody along the embedded rational homology ball $B_p$, then the resulting 4-manifold cannot be obtained just by a sequence of ordinary blow ups from the 2-handlebody under a certain mild condition.

• Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.1293-1308
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• 2016

In this paper we prove the existence of rational homology balls smoothly embedded in regular neighborhoods of certain linear chains of smooth 2-spheres by using techniques from minimal model program for 3-dimensional complex algebraic variety.