Oriented closed curves on an orientable surface with boundary are described up to continuous deformation by reduced cyclic words in the generators of the fundamental group and their inverses. By self-intersection number one means the minimum number of transversal self-intersection points of representatives of the class. We prove that if a class is chosen at random from among all classes of $m$ letters, then for large $m$ the distribution of the self-intersection number approaches the Gaussian distribution.
Given an orientable surface with boundary and a free homotopy class, we present a purely combinatorial algorithm which produces a representative of that homotopy class with minimal self intersection.
We develop tools to study the topology and geometry of self-affine fractals in dimension three and higher. We use the self-affine structure and obtain rather detailed information about the connectedness of interior and boundary sets, and on the dimensions and intersections of boundary sets. As an application, we describe in algebraic terms the polyhedral structure of the six fractal three-dimensional twindragons. Only two of them can be homeomorphic to a ball but even these have faces which are not homeomorphic to a disk.
Framed combinatorial topology is a novel theory describing combinatorial phenomena arising at the intersection of stratified topology, singularity theory, and higher algebra. The theory synthesizes elements of classical combinatorial topology with a new combinatorial approach to framings. The resulting notion of framed combinatorial spaces has unexpectedly good behavior when compared to classical, nonframed combinatorial notions of space. In discussing this behavior and its contrast with that of classical structures, we emphasize two broad themes, computability in combinatorial topology and co…
We develop a tighter implementation of basic PL topology, which keeps track of some combinatorial structure beyond PL homeomorphism type. With this technique we clarify some aspects of PL transversality and give combinatorial proofs of a number of known results. New results include a combinatorial characterization of collapsible polyhedra in terms of constructible posets (generalizing face posets of constructible simplicial complexes in the sense of Hochster). The relevant constructible posets are also characterized in terms of Reading's zipping of posets, which is a variation of edge contract…
This is the first installment of a book on combinatorial and geometric group theory from the topological point of view. This is a classical subject. The installment contains Chapters 1, 3 and 4, and there are nine chapters in total: 1. Combinatorial Complexes 2. Topological Invariants 3. Coverings 4. Galois Theory 5. Generators and Relations 6. The Topological Dictionary 7. Amalgams 8. The Arboreal Dictionary 9. Ends.
This is an extended version of a talk given at the conference "Algebra and Topology in Interaction" on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of D.B. Fuchs at UC Davis in September 2009. It is a brief survey of an area originated around 1995 by I. Gelfand and the author.
We develop the intersection theory at relative chain-cochain level, and apply it along with the use of Seifert disks for an oriented link to give a combinatorial algorithm to compute Massey's higher order linking numbers. It is subtle to compute higher-order linking numbers, and it has been a folklore to use the intersection theory in the process, which was first suggested by W. Massey. Massey introduced the higher-order linking as an application of his higher-order cohomology operations defined in terms of suitable cochains, and he calculated the third-order linking numbers for some 3-compone…
In this paper, $S$ denotes a surface homeomorphic to a punctured torus or a pair of pants. Our interest is the study of \emph{\textbf{combinatorial $k$-systoles}} that is closed curves with self-intersection numbers greater than $k$ and with least combinatorial length. We show that the maximal intersection number $I^c_k$ of combinatorial $k$-systoles of $S$ grows like $k$ and $\underset{k\rightarrow+\infty}{\limsup}(I^c_k-k)=+\infty$. This result, in case of a pair of pants and a punctured torus, is a positive response to the combinatorial version of the Erlandsson - Parlier conjecture, origin…
For a family of polytopes of even dimension $2p$, known as \textit{dual-neighborly}, it has been shown for $p\ne 2$ that the associated intersection of quadrics is a connected sum of sphere products $S^p\times S^p$. In this article we give formulas for the number of terms in that connected sum. Certain combinatorial operations produce new polytopes whose associated intersections are also connected sums of sphere products and we give also formulas for their number. These include a large amount of simple polytopes, including many odd-dimensional ones.
We study the periods mapping from the moduli space of real hyperelliptic curves with marked point on an oriented oval to the euclidean space. The mapping arises in the analysis of Chebyshev construction used in the constrained optimization of the uniform norm of polynomials and rational functions. The decomposition of the moduli space into polyhedra labeled by planar graphs allows to investigate the global topology of low dimensional fibers of the periods mapping.
Starting from the (apparently) elementary problem of deciding how many different topological spaces can be obtained by gluing together in pairs the faces of an octahedron, we will describe the central role played by hyperbolic geometry within three-dimensional topology. We will also point out the striking difference with the two-dimensional case, and we will review some of the results of the combinatorial and computational approach to three-manifolds developed by different mathematicians over the last several years.
We show how to measure the failure of the Whitney trick in dimension 4 by constructing higher- order intersection invariants of Whitney towers built from iterated Whitney disks on immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds. For Whitney towers on immersed disks in the 4-ball, we identify some of these new invariants with previously known link invariants like Milnor, Sato-Levine and Arf invariants. We also define higher- order Sato-Levine and Arf invariants and show that these invariants detect the obstructions to framing a twisted Whitney tower. Together with Milnor invariants, these higher-order invaria…
This is an expository paper, in which we give a summary of some of the joint work of John Luecke and the author on Dehn surgery. We consider the situation where we have two Dehn fillings $M(α)$ and $M(β)$ on a given 3-manifold $M$, each containing a surface that is either essential or a Heegaard surface. We show how a combinatorial analysis of the graphs of intersection of the two corresponding punctured surfaces in $M$ enables one to find faces of these graphs which give useful topological information about $M(α)$ and $M(β)$, and hence, in certain cases, good upper bounds on the intersection …
We present a simplified formulation of open intersection numbers, as an alternative to the theory initiated by Pandharipande, Solomon and Tessler. The relevant moduli spaces consist of Riemann surfaces (either with or without boundary) with only interior marked points. These spaces have a combinatorial description using a generalization of ribbon graphs, with a straightforward compactification and corresponding intersection theory. Crucially, the generating functions for the two different constructions of open intersection numbers are identical. In particular, our construction provides a compl…
A planar graph is inscribable if it is combinatorial equivalent to the skeleton of a polyhedra which is inscribed in a sphere. For an inscribable graph, in its combinatorial equivalent class, if we could always find polyhedra inscribed in any given convex surface which is sufficiently close to the sphere, then we call such an inscribable graph a stable one. By combining the Teichmüller theory of packings with differential topology method, in this paper there is investigation on the stability of some inscribable graphs.
We present an approach of computing the intersection curve $\mathcal{C}$ of two rational parametric surface $§_1(u,s)$ and $§_2(v,t)$, one being projectable and hence can easily be implicitized. Plugging the parametric surface to the implicit surface yields a plane algebraic curve $G(v,t)=0$. By analyzing the topology graph $\G$ of $G(v,t)=0$ and the singular points on the intersection curve $\mathcal{C}$ we associate a space topology graph to $\mathcal{C}$, which is homeomorphic to $\mathcal{C}$ and therefore leads us to an approximation for $\mathcal{C}$ in a given precision.
In an orientable surface with boundary, free homotopy classes of curves on surfaces are in one to one correspondence with cyclic reduced words in a set of standard generators of the fundamental group. The combinatorial length of a class is the number of letters of the corresponding word. The self-intersection of a free homotopy class (that is, the smallest number of self-crossings of a representative of a class) can be computed in terms of the word. For each of the free homotopy classes of length twenty on the punctured torus, we compute its self-intersection number and make a histogram of how…
Two arrangements with the same combinatorial intersection lattice but whose complements have different fundamental groups are called a Zariski pair. This work finds that there are at most nine such pairs amongst all ten line arrangements whose intersection points are doubles or triples. This result is obtained by considering the moduli space of a given configuration table which describes the intersection lattice. A complete combinatorial classification is given of all arrangements of this type under a suitable assumption, producing a list of seventy-one described in a table, most of which do n…
We derive various inequalities involving the intersection number of the curves contained in geodesics and tight geodesics in the curve graph. While there already exist such inequalities on tight geodesics, our method applies in the setting of geodesics. Furthermore, the method gives inequalities with a uniform constant depending only on the topology of the surface.
The paper surveys some new results and open problems connected with such fundamental combinatorial concepts as polytopes, simplicial complexes, cubical complexes, and subspace arrangements. Particular attention is paid to the case of simplicial and cubical subdivisions of manifolds and, especially, spheres. We describe important constructions which allow to study all these combinatorial objects by means of methods of commutative and homological algebra. The proposed approach to combinatorial problems relies on the theory of moment-angle complexes, currently being developed by the authors. The …
We obtain some restrictions on the topology of infinite volume hyperbolic manifolds. In particular, for any n and any closed negatively curved manifold M of dimension greater than 2, only finitely many hyperbolic n-manifolds are total spaces of orientable vector bundles over M.
This paper introduces an intersection theory problem for maps into a smooth manifold equipped with a stratification. We investigate the problem in the special case when the target is the unitary group and the domain is a circle. The first main result is an index theorem that equates a global intersection index with a finite sum of locally defined intersection indices. The local indices are integers arising from the geometry of the stratification. The result is used to study a well-known problem in chemical physics, namely, the problem of enumerating the electronic excitations (excitons) of a m…
For the free group $F_{N}$ of finite rank $N \geq 2$ we construct a canonical Bonahon-type continuous and $Out(F_N)$-invariant \emph{geometric intersection form} \[ <, >: \bar{cv}(F_N)\times Curr(F_N)\to \mathbb R_{\ge 0}. \] Here $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ is the closure of unprojectivized Culler-Vogtmann's Outer space $cv(F_N)$ in the equivariant Gromov-Hausdorff convergence topology (or, equivalently, in the length function topology). It is known that $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ consists of all \emph{very small} minimal isometric actions of $F_N$ on $\mathbb R$-trees. The projectivization of $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ provi…
To enumerate 3-manifold triangulations with a given property, one typically begins with a set of potential face pairing graphs (also known as dual 1-skeletons), and then attempts to flesh each graph out into full triangulations using an exponential-time enumeration. However, asymptotically most graphs do not result in any 3-manifold triangulation, which leads to significant "wasted time" in topological enumeration algorithms. Here we give a new algorithm to determine whether a given face pairing graph supports any 3-manifold triangulation, and show this to be fixed parameter tractable in the t…
