Let $M$ be a connected compact PL 4-manifold with boundary. In this article, we have given several lower bounds for regular genus and gem-complexity of the manifold $M$. In particular, we have proved that if $M$ is a connected compact $4$-manifold with $h$ boundary components then its gem-complexity $\mathit{k}(M)$ satisfies the following inequalities:
$$\mathit{k}(M)\geq 3χ(M)+7m+7h-10 \mbox{ and }\mathit{k}(M)\geq \mathit{k}(\partial M)+3χ(M)+4m+6h-9,$$
and its regular genus $\mathcal{G}(M)$ satisfies the following inequalities:
$$\mathcal{G}(M)\geq 2χ(M)+3m+2h-4\mbox{ and }\mathcal{G}(M)\geq \mathcal{G}(\partial M)+2χ(M)+2m+2h-4,$$
where $m$ is the rank of the fundamental group of the manifold $M$. These lower bounds enable to strictly improve previously known estimations for regular genus and gem-complexity of a PL $4$-manifold with boundary. Further, the sharpness of these bounds has also been shown for a large class of PL $4$-manifolds with boundary.
Within crystallization theory, two interesting PL invariants for $d$-manifolds have been introduced and studied, namely {\it gem-complexity} and {\it regular genus}. In the present paper we prove that, for any closed connected PL $4$-manifold $M$, its gem-complexity $\mathit{k}(M)$ and its regular genus $ \mathcal G(M)$ satisfy: $$\mathit{k}(M) \ \geq \ 3 χ(M) + 10m -6 \ \ \ \text{and} \ \ \ \mathcal G(M) \ \geq \ 2 χ(M) + 5m -4,$$ where $rk(π_1(M))=m.$ These lower bounds enable to strictly improve previously known estimations for regular genus and gem-complexity of product 4-manifolds. Moreov…
In this article, we construct a crystallization of the mapping torus of some (PL) homeomorphisms $f:M \to M$ for a certain class of PL-manifolds $M$. These yield upper bounds for gem-complexity and regular genus of a large class of PL-manifolds. The bound for the regular genus is sharp for the mapping torus of some (PL) homeomorphisms $f:M \to M$, where $M$ is $\mathbb{RP}^2$, $\mathbb{RP}^2\#\mathbb{RP}^2$, $\mathbb{S}^1\times \mathbb{S}^1$, $\mathbb{RP}^3$, $\mathbb{S}^{2} \times \mathbb{S}^1$, $\mathbb{S}^{\hspace{.2mm}2} \mbox{$\times \hspace{-2.6mm}_{-}$} \, \mathbb{S}^{\hspace{.1mm}1}$ o…
The idea of studying trisections of closed smooth $4$-manifolds via (singular) triangulations, endowed with a suitable vertex-labelling by three colors, is due to Bell, Hass, Rubinstein and Tillmann, and has been applied by Spreer and Tillmann to colored triangulations associated to the so called simple crystallizations of standard simply-connected $4$-manifolds. The present paper performs a generalization of these ideas along two different directions: first, we take in consideration also compact PL $4$-manifolds with connected boundary, introducing a possible extension of trisections to the b…
We introduce a notion of genus range as a set of values of genera over all surfaces into which a graph is embedded cellularly, and we study the genus ranges of a special family of four-regular graphs with rigid vertices that has been used in modeling homologous DNA recombination. We show that the genus ranges are sets of consecutive integers. For any positive integer $n$, there are graphs with $2n $ vertices that have genus range ${m,m+1,...,m'}$ for all $0\le m<m'\le n$, and there are graphs with $2n-1$ vertices with genus range ${m,m+1,...,m'}$ for all $0\le m<m' <n$ or $0<m<m'\le n$. Furthe…
Simple crystallizations are edge-coloured graphs representing PL 4-manifolds with the property that the 1-skeleton of the associated triangulation equals the 1-skeleton of a 4-simplex. In the present paper, we prove that any (simply-connected) PL $4$-manifold $M$ admitting a simple crystallization admits a special handlebody decomposition, too; equivalently, $M$ may be represented by a framed link yielding $\mathbb S^3$, with exactly $β_2(M)$ components ($β_2(M)$ being the second Betti number of $M$). As a consequence, the regular genus of $M$ is proved to be the double of $β_2(M)$. Moreover, …
Let $(Γ,γ)$ be a crystallization of connected compact 3-manifold $M$ with $h$ boundary components. Let $\mathcal{G}(M)$ and $\mathit k (M)$ be the regular genus and gem-complexity of $M$ respectively, and let $\mathcal{G}(\partial M)$ be the regular genus of $\partial M$. We prove that $$\mathit k (M)\geq 3 (\mathcal{G}(M)+h-1) \geq 3 (\mathcal{G} (\partial M)+h-1).$$ These bounds for gem-complexity of $M$ are sharp for several 3-manifolds with boundary. Further, we show that if $\partial M$ is connected and $\mathit k (M)< 3 (\mathcal{G} (\partial M)+1)$ then $M$ is a handlebody. In particula…
The present paper is devoted to present a unifying survey about some special classes of crystallizations of compact PL $4$-manifolds with empty or connected boundary, called {\it semi-simple} and {\it weak semi-simple crystallizations}, with a particular attention to their properties of minimizing combinatorially defined PL-invariants, such as the {\it regular genus}, the {\it Gurau degree}, the {\it gem-complexity} and the {\it (gem-induced) trisection genus}. The main theorem, yielding a summarizing result on the topic, is an original contribution. Moreover, in the present paper the additivi…
For $d\geq 2$, the regular genus of a closed connected PL $d$-manifold $M$ is the least genus (resp., half of the genus) of an orientable (resp., a non-orientable) surface into which a crystallization of $M$ imbeds regularly. The regular genus of every orientable surface equals its genus, and the regular genus of every 3-manifold equals its Heegaard genus. For every closed connected PL $4$-manifold $M$, it is known that its regular genus $\mathcal G(M)$ is at least $2 χ(M) + 5m -4$, where $m$ is the rank of the fundamental group of $M$. In this article, we introduce the concept of "weak semi-s…
(d+1)-colored graphs, i.e. edge-colored graphs that are (d+1)-regular, have already been proved to be a useful representation tool for compact PL d-manifolds, thus extending the theory (known as crystallization theory) originally developed for the closed case. In this context, combinatorially defined PL invariants play a relevant role. The present paper focuses in particular on generalized regular genus and G-degree: the first one extending to higher dimension the classical notion of Heegaard genus for 3-manifolds, the second one arising, within theoretical physics, from the theory of random t…
The Hurwitz problem asks which ramification data are realizable, that is appear as the ramification type of a covering. We use dessins d'enfant to show that families of genus 1 regular ramification data with small changes are realizable with the exception of four families which were recently shown to be nonrealizable. A similar description holds in the case of genus 0 ramification data.
We introduce hyperelliptic simplified (more generally, directed) broken Lefschetz fibrations, which is a generalization of hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations. We construct involutions on the total spaces of such fibrations of genus $g\geq 3$ and extend these involutions to the four-manifolds obtained by blowing up the total spaces. The extended involutions induce double branched coverings over blown up sphere bundles over the sphere. We also show that the regular fiber of such a fibration of genus $g\geq 3$ represents a non-trivial rational homology class of the total space.
In this paper we study colored triangulations of compact PL 4-manifolds with empty or connected boundary which induce handle decompositions lacking in 1-handles or in 1- and 3-handles, thus facing also the problem, posed by Kirby, of the existence of {\it special handlebody decompositions} for any simply-connected closed PL 4-manifold. In particular, we detect a class of compact simply-connected PL 4-manifolds with empty or connected boundary, which admit such decompositions and, therefore, can be represented by (undotted) framed links. Moreover, this class includes any compact simply-connecte…
In this paper, we develop a general existence theory for properly embedded minimal surfaces with free boundary in any compact Riemannian 3-manifold $M$ with boundary $\partial M$. The main feature of our result is that no convexity assumption is required on $\partial M$. Our proof uses a variant of the min-max construction first considered by Almgren and Pitts. Recently, Colding-De Lellis gave a simplified proof of the interior regularity and here, we prove the boundary regularity of the limiting embedded minimal surfaces at their free boundaries. In addition, we define a topological invariant…
We obtain sharp upper and lower bounds on a certain four-dimensional Frobenius number determined by a prime pair $(p,q)$, $2<p<q$, including exact formulae for two infinite subclasses of such pairs. Our work is motivated by the study of compact Riemann surfaces which can be realized as a semi-regular $pq$-fold coverings of surfaces of lower genus. In this context, the Frobenius number is (up to an additive translation) the largest genus in which no surface is such a covering. In many cases it is also the largest genus in which no surface admits an automorphism of order $pq$. The general $t$-di…
In this paper, we first discuss the regular level set of a nonsingular Smale flow (NSF) on a 3-manifold. The main result about this topic is that a 3-manifold $M$ admits an NSF flow which has a regular level set homeomorphic to $(n+1)T^{2}$ $(n\in \mathbb{Z}, n\geq 0)$ if and only if $M=M'\sharp n S^{1}\times S^{2}$. Then we discuss how to realize a template as a basic set of an NSF on a 3-manifold. We focus on the connection between the genus of the template $T$ and the topological structure of the realizing 3-manifold $M$.
