We introduce a polynomial invariant $V_τ\in \mathbb{Z}[H_1(M)/\text{torsion}]$ associated to a veering triangulation $τ$ of a $3$-manifold $M$. In the special case where the triangulation is layered, i.e. comes from a fibration, $V_τ$ recovers the Teichmüller polynomial of the fibered faces canonically associated to $τ$. Via Dehn filling, this gives a combinatorial description of the Teichmüller polynomial for any hyperbolic fibered $3$-manifold.
For a general veering triangulation $τ$, we show that the surfaces carried by $τ$ determine a cone in homology that is dual to its cone of positive closed transversals. Moreover, we prove that this is $\textit{equal}$ to the cone over a (generally non-fibered) face of the Thurston norm ball, and that $τ$ computes the norm on this cone in a precise sense. We also give a combinatorial description of $V_τ$ in terms of the $\textit{flow graph}$ for $τ$ and its Perron polynomial. This perspective allows us to characterize when a veering triangulation comes from a fibration, and more generally to compute the face of the Thurston norm determined by $τ$.
Agol recently introduced the concept of a veering taut triangulation, which is a taut triangulation with some extra combinatorial structure. We define the weaker notion of a "veering triangulation" and use it to show that all veering triangulations admit strict angle structures. We also answer a question of Agol, giving an example of a veering taut triangulation that is not layered.
Recently, Ian Agol introduced a class of "veering" ideal triangulations for mapping tori of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of surfaces punctured along the singular points. These triangulations have very special combinatorial properties, and Agol asked if these are "geometric", i.e. realised in the complete hyperbolic metric with all tetrahedra positively oriented. This paper describes a computer program Veering, building on the program Trains by Toby Hall, for generating these triangulations starting from a description of the homeomorphism as a product of Dehn twists. Using this we obtain the fi…
We study the connections between subsurface projections in curve and arc complexes in fibered 3-manifolds and Agol's veering triangulation. The main theme is that large-distance subsurfaces in fibers are associated to large simplicial regions in the veering triangulation, and this correspondence holds uniformly for all fibers in a given fibered face of the Thurston norm.
Certain fibered hyperbolic 3-manifolds admit a $\mathit{\text{layered veering triangulation}}$, which can be constructed algorithmically given the stable lamination of the monodromy. These triangulations were introduced by Agol in 2011, and have been further studied by several others in the years since. We obtain experimental results which shed light on the combinatorial structure of veering triangulations, and its relation to certain topological invariants of the underlying manifold.
We show that a veering triangulation $τ$ specifies a face $σ$ of the Thurston norm ball of a closed three-manifold, and computes the Thurston norm in the cone over $σ$. Further, we show that $τ$ collates exactly the taut surfaces representing classes in the cone over $σ$ up to isotopy. The analysis includes nonlayered veering triangulations and nonfibered faces.
Agol recently introduced the notion of a veering triangulation, and showed that such triangulations naturally arise as layered triangulations of fibered hyperbolic 3-manifolds. We prove, by a constructive argument, that every veering triangulation admits positive angle structures, recovering a result of Hodgson, Rubinstein, Segerman, and Tillmann. Our construction leads to explicit lower bounds on the smallest angle in this positive angle structure, and to information about angled holonomy of the boundary tori.
Any hyperbolic surface bundle over the circle gives rise to a continuous surjection from the circle to the sphere, by work of Cannon and Thurston. We prove that the order in which this surjection fills out the sphere is dictated by a natural triangulation of the surface bundle (introduced by Agol) when all singularities of the invariant foliations are at punctures of the fiber.
Let $M$ be a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold with a fibered face $σ$ of the unit ball of the Thurston norm on $H_2(M)$. If $M$ satisfies a certain condition related to Agol's veering triangulations, we construct a taut branched surface in $M$ spanning $σ$. This partially answers a 1985 question of Oertel, and extends an earlier partial answer due to Mosher.
Every pseudo-Anosov mapping class $φ$ defines an associated veering triangulation $τ_φ$ of a punctured mapping torus. We show that generically, $τ_φ$ is not geometric. Here, the word "generic" can be taken either with respect to random walks in mapping class groups or with respect to counting geodesics in moduli space. Tools in the proof include Teichmüller theory, the Ending Lamination Theorem, study of the Thurston norm, and rigorous computation.
Landry, Minsky and Taylor [LMT] introduced two polynomial invariants of veering triangulations -- the taut polynomial and the veering polynomial. We give algorithms to compute these invariants. In their definition [LMT] use only the upper track of the veering triangulation, while we consider both the upper and the lower track. We prove that the lower and the upper taut polynomials are equal. However, we show that there are veering triangulations whose lower and upper veering polynomials are different. [LMT] related the Teichmüller polynomial of a fibred face of the Thurston norm ball with the …
For certain pseudo-Anosov flows $ϕ$ on closed $3$-manifolds, unpublished work of Agol--Guéritaud produces a veering triangulation $τ$ on the manifold $M$ obtained by deleting $ϕ$'s singular orbits. We show that $τ$ can be realized in $M$ so that its 2-skeleton is positively transverse to $ϕ$, and that the combinatorially defined flow graph $Φ$ embedded in $M$ uniformly codes $ϕ$'s orbits in a precise sense. Together with these facts we use a modified version of the veering polynomial, previously introduced by the authors, to compute the growth rates of $ϕ$'s closed orbits after cutting $M$ alo…
We show that the cone over a fibered face of a compact fibered hyperbolic 3-manifold is dual to the cone generated by the homology classes of finitely many curves called minimal stable loops living in the associated veering triangulation. We also present a new, more hands-on proof of Mosher's Transverse Surface Theorem.
Let $K\subset S^3$ be a hyperbolic fibered knot such that $S^3_{p/q}(K)$, the $\frac pq$--surgery on $K$, is non-hyperbolic. We prove that if the monodromy of $K$ is right-veering, then $0\le\frac pq\le 4g(K)$. The upper bound $4g(K)$ cannot be attained if $S^3_{p/q}(K)$ is a small Seifert fibered L-space. If the monodromy of $K$ is neither right-veering nor left-veering, then $|q|\le3$. As a corollary, for any given positive torus knot $T$, if $p/q\ge4g(T)+4$, then $p/q$ is a characterizing slope. This improves earlier bounds of Ni--Zhang and McCoy. We also prove that some finite/cyclic slope…
We describe a new algorithm to compute the geometric intersection number between two curves, given as edge vectors on an ideal triangulation. Most importantly, this algorithm runs in polynomial time in the bit-size of the two edge vectors. In its simplest instances, this algorithm works by finding the minimal position of the two curves. We achieve this by phrasing the problem as a collection of linear programming problems. We describe how to reduce the more general case down to one of these simplest instances in polynomial time. This reduction relies on an algorithm by the first author to quic…
The Ptolemy variety for SL(2,C) is an invariant of a topological ideal triangulation of a compact 3-manifold M. It is closely related to Thurston's gluing equation variety. The Ptolemy variety maps naturally to the set of conjugacy classes of boundary-unipotent SL(2,C)-representations, but (like the gluing equation variety) it depends on the triangulation, and may miss several components of representations. In this paper, we define a Ptolemy variety, which is independent of the choice of triangulation, and detects all boundary-unipotent irreducible SL(2,C)-representations. We also define varia…
In this article, we introduce a fixed parameter tractable algorithm for computing the Turaev-Viro invariants TV(4,q), using the dimension of the first homology group of the manifold as parameter. This is, to our knowledge, the first parameterised algorithm in computational 3-manifold topology using a topological parameter. The computation of TV(4,q) is known to be #P-hard in general; using a topological parameter provides an algorithm polynomial in the size of the input triangulation for the extremely large family of 3-manifolds with first homology group of bounded rank. Our algorithm is easy …
In 2006, Fock and Goncharov constructed a nice basis of the ring of regular functions on the moduli space of framed ${\rm PGL}_2$-local systems on a punctured surface $S$. The moduli space is birational to a cluster $\mathcal{X}$-variety, whose positive real points recover the enhanced Teichmüller space of $S$. Their basis is enumerated by integral laminations on $S$, which are collections of closed curves in $S$ with integer weights. Around ten years later, a quantized version of this basis, still enumerated by integral laminations, was constructed by Allegretti and Kim. For each choice of an…
We study quantum invariant Z(M) for cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold M. We construct this invariant based on oriented ideal triangulation of M by assigning to each tetrahedron the quantum dilogarithm function, which is introduced by Faddeev in studies of the modular double of the quantum group. Following Thurston and Neumann-Zagier, we deform a complete hyperbolic structure of M, and correspondingly we define quantum invariant Z(M_u). This quantum invariant is shown to give the Neumann--Zagier potential function in the classical limit, and the A-polynomial can be derived from the potential functio…
