On absolutely exotic diffeomorphisms of 4-manifolds

Abstract

We prove that there exist infinitely many contractible compact smooth $4$-manifolds $C$ that admit absolutely exotic diffeomorphisms of infinite order in $\pi_0(\mathrm{Diff}(C))$. By ``absolutely", we mean that isotopies are not required to be relative to the boundary. This follows from a theorem that produces absolutely exotic diffeomorphisms from relatively exotic diffeomorphisms, analogous to a theorem of Akbulut and Ruberman that produces absolutely exotic 4-manifolds from relatively exotic 4-manifolds.