I construct infinite families of knots and links with totally geodesic spanning surfaces, which we call TGS knots and TGS links, in various 3-manifolds. These 3-manifolds include thickened orientable surfaces, the sphere cross the circle, lens spaces, and the solid torus. The totally geodesic spanning surfaces of knots embedded in thickened orientable surfaces are also examples of totally geodesic spanning surfaces of virtual knots.
The first examples of totally geodesic Seifert surfaces are constructed for hyperbolic knots and links, including both free and totally knotted surfaces. Then it is proved that two bridge knot complements cannot contain totally geodesic orientable surfaces.
We generalize the results of [AS], finding large classes of totally geodesic Seifert surfaces in hyperbolic knot and link complements, each the lift of a rigid 2-orbifold embedded in some hyperbolic 3-orbifold. In addition, we provide a uniqueness theorem and demonstrate that many knots cannot possess totally geodesic Seifert surfaces by giving bounds on the width invariant in the presence of such a surface. Finally, we utilize these examples to demonstrate that the Six Theorem is sharp for knot complements in the 3-sphere.
Given a compact orientable 3-manifold M whose boundary is a hyperbolic surface and a simple closed curve C in its boundary, every knot in M is homotopic to one whose complement admits a complete hyperbolic structure with totally geodesic boundary in which the geodesic representative of C is as small as you like.
In this paper we prove that one can find surgeries arbitrarily close to infinity in the Dehn surgery space of the figure eight knot complement for which some immersed totally geodesic surface compresses.
In this article, we give explicit examples of infinitely many non-commensurable (non-arithmetic) hyperbolic $3$-manifolds admitting exactly $k$ totally geodesic surfaces for any positive integer $k$, answering a question of Bader, Fisher, Miller and Stover. The construction comes from a family of twist knot complements and their dihedral covers. The case $k=1$ arises from the uniqueness of an immersed totally geodesic thrice-punctured sphere, answering a question of Reid. Applying the proof techniques of the main result, we explicitly construct non-elementary maximal Fuchsian subgroups of infi…
We consider the existence of simple closed geodesics or "geodesic knots" in finite volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Previous results show that at least one geodesic knot always exists [Bull. London Math. Soc. 31(1) (1999) 81-86], and that certain arithmetic manifolds contain infinitely many geodesic knots [J. Diff. Geom. 38 (1993) 545-558], [Experimental Mathematics 10(3) (2001) 419-436]. In this paper we show that all cusped orientable finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds contain infinitely many geodesic knots. Our proof is constructive, and the infinite family of geodesic knots prod…
This notes explores angle structures on ideally triangulated compact $3$-manifolds with high genus boundary. We show that the existence of angle structures implies the existence of a hyperbolic metric with totally geodesic boundary, and conversely each hyperbolic $3$-manifold with totally geodesic boundary has an ideal triangulation that admits angle structures.
We prove that alternating links with two totally geodesic checkerboard surfaces are three links with projection the 1-skeleton of the octahedron, the cuboctahedron and the icosidodecahedron. We also characterize these links as right-angled completely realisable links and show that all hyperbolic weaving knots with two exceptions have both checkerboard surfaces not totally geodesic.
In this article, we investigate the problem of counting totally geodesic surfaces in the complement of hyperbolic knots with at most 9 crossings. Adapting previous counting techniques of boundary slope and intersection, we establish uniqueness of a totally geodesic surface for the knots $7_4$ and $9_{35}$. Extending an obstruction to the existence of totally geodesic surfaces due to Calegari, we show that there is no totally geodesic surface in the complement of 47 knots.
Kerckhoff and Storm conjectured that compact hyperbolic n-orbifolds with totally geodesic boundary are infinitesimally rigid when n>3. This paper verifies this conjecture for a specific example based on the 4-dimensional hyperbolic 120-cell.
We show that for a surface S, the subgraph of the pants graph determined by fixing a collection of curves that cut S into pairs of pants, once-punctured tori, and four-times-punctured spheres is totally geodesic. The main theorem resolves a special case of a conjecture made by Aramayona, Parlier, and Shackleton and has the implication that an embedded product of Farey graphs in any pants graph is totally geodesic. In addition, we show that a pants graph contains a convex n-flat if and only if it contains an n-quasi-flat.
A real projective orbifold has a radial end if a neighborhood of the end is foliated by projective geodesics that develop into geodesics ending at a common point. It has a totally geodesic end if the end can be completed to have the totally geodesic boundary. The purpose of this paper is to announce some partial results. A real projective structure sometimes admits deformations to parameters of real projective structures. We will prove a homeomorphism between the deformation space of convex real projective structures on an orbifold $\mathcal{O}$ with radial or totally geodesic ends with variou…
Prime knots of genus one admitting diagram with at most five classical crossings were classified by Akimova and Matveev in 2014. In 2018 Kaur, Prabhakar and Vesnin introduced families of L-polynomials and F-polynomials for virtual knots which are generalizations of affine index polynomial. Here we introduce a notion of totally flat-trivial knots and demonstrate that for such knots F-polynomials and L-polynomials coincide with affine index polynomial. We prove that all Akimova - Matveev knots are totally flat-trivial and calculate their affine index polynomials.
Real projective structures on $n$-orbifolds are useful in understanding the space of representations of discrete groups into $\mathrm{SL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$ or $\mathrm{PGL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. A recent work shows that many hyperbolic manifolds deform to manifolds with such structures not projectively equivalent to the original ones. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structures of ends of real projective $n$-dimensional orbifolds. In particular, these have the radial or totally geodesic ends. In previous papers, we classified properly convex or complete radial ends under suitable co…
In this paper we examine the relationship between the length spectrum and the geometric genus spectrum of an arithmetic hyperbolic 3-orbifold M. In particular we analyze the extent to which the geometry of M is determined by the closed geodesics coming from finite area totally geodesic surfaces. Using a variety of techniques from analytic number theory, we address the following problems: Is the commensurability class of an arithmetic hyperbolic 3-orbifold determined by the lengths of closed geodesics lying on totally geodesic surfaces?, Do there exist arithmetic hyperbolic 3-orbifolds whose "s…
Real projective structures on $n$-orbifolds are useful in understanding the space of representations of discrete groups into $\mathrm{SL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$ or $\mathrm{PGL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. A recent work shows that many hyperbolic manifolds deform to manifolds with such structures not projectively equivalent to the original ones. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structures of ends of real projective $n$-dimensional orbifolds. In particular, these have the radial or totally geodesic ends. Hyperbolic manifolds with cusps and hyper-ideal ends are examples. For this, we will study …
We study embedding of closed totally geodesic hyperbolic 2-orbifolds in the Bianchi orbifolds $\mathbb{H}^3/PSL(2,\mathcal{O}_d)$. Our main result shows that there is a constant $c$ such that for $d$ large enough there are at least $cd$ closed embedded totally geodesic hyperbolic 2-orbifolds. Moreover we provide a list which conjecturally consists of those $d$ for which $\mathbb{H}^3/PSL(2,\mathcal{O}_d)$ does not contain a closed embedded totally geodesic hyperbolic 2-orbifold.
Real projective structures on $n$-orbifolds are useful in understanding the space of representations of discrete groups into $SL(n+1, \mathbb{R})$ or $PGL(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. A recent work shows that many hyperbolic manifolds deform to manifolds with such structures not projectively equivalent to the original ones. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structures of ends of real projective $n$-dimensional orbifolds. In particular, these have the radial or totally geodesic ends. Hyperbolic manifolds with cusps and hyper-ideal ends are examples. For this, we will study the natural condit…
A closed totally geodesic surface in the figure eight knot complement remains incompressible in all but finitely many Dehn fillings. In this paper, we show that there is no universal upper bound on the number of such fillings, independent of the surface. This answers a question of Ying-Qing Wu.
We study totally geodesic planes in hyperbolic 3-manifolds $M$ having incompressible core and degenerate ends. We prove a Ratner-type phenomenon: a closed minimal $PSL(2,R)-$invariant subset of $M$ is either an immersed totally geodesic surface or all of $M$. We also show that for an arbitrary infinite volume hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ without parabolics and with finitely generated fundamental group, the number of compact totally geodesic surfaces in $M$ is finite.
In this paper, we explicitly construct large classes of incommensurable hyperbolic knot complements with the same volume and the same initial (complex) length spectrum. Furthermore, we show that these knot complements are the only knot complements in their respective commensurabiltiy classes by analyzing their cusp shapes. The knot complements in each class differ by a topological cut-and-paste operation known as mutation. Ruberman has shown that mutations of hyperelliptic surfaces inside hyperbolic 3-manifolds preserve volume. Here, we provide geometric and topological conditions under which …
The geodesic length spectrum of a complete, finite volume, hyperbolic 3-orbifold M is a fundamental invariant of the topology of M via Mostow-Prasad Rigidity. Motivated by this, the second author and Reid defined a two-dimensional analogue of the geodesic length spectrum given by the multiset of isometry types of totally geodesic, immersed, finite-area surfaces of M called the geometric genus spectrum. They showed that if $M$ is arithmetic and contains a totally geodesic surface, then the geometric genus spectrum of M determines its commensurability class. In this paper we define a coarser inv…
Let $G/Γ$ be the quotient of a semisimple Lie group by an arithmetic lattice. We show that for reductive subgroups $H$ of $G$ that is large enough, the orbits of $H$ on $G/Γ$ intersect nontrivially with a fixed compact set. As a consequence, we deduce finiteness result for totally geodesic submanifolds of arithmetic quotients of symmetric spaces that do not admit nontrivial deformation and with bounded volume. Our work generalizes previous work of Tomanov--Weiss and Oh on this topic.
Every closed geodesic $γ$ on a surface has a canonically associated knot $\widehatγ$ in the projective unit tangent bundle. We study, for $γ$ filling, the volume of the associated knot complement with respect to its unique complete hyperbolic metric. We provide a lower bound for the volume relative to the number of homotopy classes of $γ$-arcs in each pair of pants of a pants decomposition of the surface.
In this paper we analyze and classify the totally geodesic subspaces of finite volume quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds and their generalizations, locally symmetric orbifolds arising from irreducible lattices in Lie groups of the form $(\mathbf{Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{R}))^q \times \prod_{i=1}^r \mathbf{Sp}(p_i,n-p_i) \times (\mathbf{Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{C}))^s$. We give criteria for when the totally geodesic subspaces of such an orbifold determine its commensurability class. We give a parametrization of the commensurability classes of finite volume quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds in terms of arithmeti…
Real projective structures on $n$-orbifolds are useful in understanding the space of representations of discrete groups into $\mathrm{SL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$ or $\mathrm{PGL}(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. A recent work shows that many hyperbolic manifolds deform to manifolds with such structures not projectively equivalent to the original ones. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structures of properly convex ends of real projective $n$-dimensional orbifolds. In particular, these have the radial or totally geodesic ends. For this, we will study the natural conditions on eigenvalues of holonomy r…
We consider the Weil-Petersson gradient vector field of renormalized volume on the deformation space of convex cocompact hyperbolic structures on (relatively) acylindrical manifolds. In this paper we prove the conjecture that the flow has a global attracting fixed point at the structure $M_{\rm geod}$ the unique structure with minimum convex core volume.
In this paper we show that totally geodesic subspaces determine the commensurability class of a standard arithmetic hyperbolic $n$-orbifold, $n\ge 4$. Many of the results are more general and apply to locally symmetric spaces associated to arithmetic lattices in $\mathbb{R}$-simple Lie groups of type $B_n$ and $D_n$. We use a combination of techniques from algebraic groups and quadratic forms to prove several results about these spaces.
A real projective orbifold is an $n$-dimensional orbifold modeled on $\mathbb{RP}^n$ with the group $PGL(n+1, \mathbb{R})$. We concentrate on an orbifold that contains a compact codimension $0$ submanifold whose complement is a union of neighborhoods of ends, diffeomorphic to closed $(n-1)$-dimensional orbifolds times intervals. A real projective orbifold has a {\it radial end} if a neighborhood of the end is foliated by projective geodesics that develop into geodesics ending at a common point. It has a {\it totally geodesic end} if the end can be completed to have the totally geodesic boundar…
It is shown that every non-compact hyperbolic manifold of finite volume has a finite cover admitting a geodesic ideal triangulation. Also, every hyperbolic manifold of finite volume with non-empty, totally geodesic boundary has a finite regular cover which has a geodesic partially truncated triangulation. The proofs use an extension of a result due to Long and Niblo concerning the separability of peripheral subgroups.
Let $Γ$ be a lattice in $\mathrm{SO}_0(n, 1)$. We prove that if the associated locally symmetric space contains infinitely many maximal totally geodesic subspaces of dimension at least $2$, then $Γ$ is arithmetic. This answers a question of Reid for hyperbolic $n$-manifolds and, independently, McMullen for hyperbolic $3$-manifolds. We prove these results by proving a superrigidity theorem for certain representations of such lattices. The proof of our superrigidity theorem uses results on equidistribution from homogeneous dynamics and our main result also admits a formulation in that language.
We parametrize the commensurability classes of curves on Shimura surfaces that are totally geodesic, i.e., the commensurability classes of so-called $\mathbb{C}$-Fuchsian subgroups. In particular, if a Shimura surface contains one commensurability class of totally geodesic curves, it contains infinitely many.
For $n \ge 2$, we prove that a finite volume complex hyperbolic $n$-manifold containing infinitely many maximal properly immersed totally geodesic submanifolds of dimension at least two is arithmetic, paralleling our previous work for real hyperbolic manifolds. As in the real hyperbolic case, our primary result is a superrigidity theorem for certain representations of complex hyperbolic lattices. The proof requires developing new general tools not needed in the real hyperbolic case. Our main results also have a number of other applications. For example, we prove nonexistence of certain maps be…
Let $g_t$ be a smooth 1-parameter family of negatively curved metrics on a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ starting at the hyperbolic metric. We construct foliations of the Grassmann bundle $Gr_2(M)$ of tangent 2-planes whose leaves are (lifts of) minimal surfaces in $(M,g_t)$. These foliations are deformations of the foliation of $Gr_2(M)$ by (lifts of) totally geodesic planes projected down from the universal cover $\mathbb{H}^3$. Our construction continues to work as long as the sum of the squares of the principal curvatures of the (projections to $M$) of the leaves remains pointwise small…
We prove by an algebraic method that the embedding of the Teichmuller space in the space of geodesic currents is totally linearly independent. We prove a similar result for all negatively curved surfaces using an ergodic argument.
Let W be a compact hyperbolic n-manifold with totally geodesic boundary. We prove that if n>3 then the holonomy representation of pi_1 (W) into the isometry group of hyperbolic n-space is infinitesimally rigid.
The primary objects of study in the ``knot theory of complex plane curves'' are C-links: links (or knots) cut out of a 3-sphere in the complex plane by complex plane transverse and totally tangential. Transverse C-links are naturally oriented. There are many natural classes of examples: links of singularities; links at infinity; links of divides, free divides, tree divides, and graph divides; and--most generally--quasipositive links. Totally tangential C-links are unoriented but naturally framed; they turn out to be precisely the real-analytic Legendrian links, and can profitably be investigat…
In this paper, we construct families of nonisometric hyperbolic orbifolds that contain the same isometry classes of nonflat totally geodesic subspaces. The main tool is a variant of the well-known Sunada method for constructing length-isospectral Riemannian manifolds that handles totally geodesic submanifolds of multiple codimensions simultaneously.
