We introduce a combinatorial curvature flow for PL metrics on compact triangulated 3-manifolds with boundary consisting of surfaces of negative Euler characteristic. The flow tends to find the complete hyperbolic metric with totally geodesic boundary on a manifold. Some of the basic properties of the combinatorial flow are established. The most important ones is that the evolution of the PL curvature satisfies a combinatorial heat equation. It implies that the total curvature decreases along the flow. The local convergence of the flow to the hyperbolic metric is also established if the triangulation is isotopic to a totally geodesic triangulation.
Discrete conformal structure on polyhedral surfaces is a discrete analogue of the smooth conformal structure on surfaces that assigns discrete metrics by scalar functions defined on vertices. In this paper, we introduce combinatorial $α$-curvature for discrete conformal structures on polyhedral surfaces, which is a parameterized generalization of the classical combinatorial curvature. Then we prove the local and global rigidity of combinatorial $α$-curvature with respect to discrete conformal structures on polyhedral surfaces, which confirms parameterized Glickenstein rigidity conjecture. To s…
This paper investigates the combinatorial $α$-curvature for vertex scaling of piecewise hyperbolic metrics on polyhedral surfaces, which is a parameterized generalization of the classical combinatorial curvature. A discrete uniformization theorem for combinatorial $α$-curvature is established, which generalizes Gu-Guo-Luo-Sun-Wu's discrete uniformization theorem for classical combinatorial curvature. We further introduce combinatorial $α$-Yamabe flow and combinatorial $α$-Calabi flow for vertex scaling to find piecewise hyperbolic metrics with prescribed combinatorial $α$-curvatures. To handle…
In this paper, we introduce a new combinatorial curvature on triangulated surfaces with inversive distance circle packing metrics. Then we prove that this combinatorial curvature has global rigidity. To study the Yamabe problem of the new curvature, we introduce a combinatorial Ricci flow, along which the curvature evolves almost in the same way as that of scalar curvature along the surface Ricci flow obtained by Hamilton \cite{Ham1}. Then we study the long time behavior of the combinatorial Ricci flow and obtain that the existence of a constant curvature metric is equivalent to the convergenc…
We define Discrete Quasi-Einstein metrics (DQE-metrics) as the critical points of discrete total curvature functional on triangulated 3-manifolds. We study DQE-metrics by introducing some combinatorial curvature flows. We prove that these flows produce solutions which converge to discrete quasi-Einstein metrics when the initial energy is small enough. The proof relies on a careful analysis of discrete dual-Laplacians which we interpret as the Jacobian matrix of the curvature map. As a consequence, combinatorial curvature flow provides an algorithm to compute discrete sphere packing metrics wit…
In this paper, we introduce two discrete curvature flows, which are called $α$-flows on two and three dimensional triangulated manifolds. For triangulated surface $M$, we introduce a new normalization of combinatorial Ricci flow (first introduced by Bennett Chow and Feng Luo \cite{CL1}), aiming at evolving $α$ order discrete Gauss curvature to a constant. When $αχ(M)\leq0$, we prove that the convergence of the flow is equivalent to the existence of constant $α$-curvature metric. We further get a necessary and sufficient combinatorial-topological-metric condition, which is a generalization of T…
In this paper, we introduce a new combinatorial curvature on two and three dimensional triangulated manifolds, which transforms in the same way as that of the smooth scalar curvature under scaling of the metric and could be used to approximate the Gauss curvature on two dimensional manifolds. Then we use the flow method to study the corresponding constant curvature problem, which is called combinatorial Yamabe problem.
Vertex scaling of piecewise linear metrics on surfaces introduced by Luo is a straightforward discretization of smooth conformal structures on surfaces. Combinatorial $α$-curvature for vertex scaling of piecewise linear metrics on surfaces is a discretization of Gaussian curvature on surfaces. In this paper, we investigate the prescribing combinatorial $α$-curvature problem on polyhedral surfaces. Using Gu-Luo-Sun-Wu's discrete conformal theory for piecewise linear metrics on surfaces and variational principles with constraints, we prove some Kazdan-Warner type theorems for prescribing combina…
These revised lecture notes are an expository account of part of the proof of Thurston's Ending Lamination Conjecture for Kleinian surface groups, which states that such groups are uniquely determined by invariants that describe the asymptotic structure of the ends of their quotient manifolds.
In [12], the existence of ideal circle patterns in Euclidean or hyperbolic background geometry under the combinatorial conditions was proved using flow approaches. It remains as an open problem for the spherical case. In this paper, we introduce a combinatorial geodesic curvature flow in spherical background geometry, which is analogous to the combinatorial Ricci flow of Chow and Luo in [4]. We characterize the sufficient and necessary condition for the convergence of the flow. That is, the prescribed geodesic curvature satisfies certain geometric and combinatorial condition if and only if for…
We show $ 10/8$-type inequalities for some end-periodic $4$-manifolds which have positive scalar curvature metrics on the ends. As an application, we construct a new family of closed $4$-manifolds which do not admit positive scalar curvature metrics.
In this survey on combinatorial properties of triangulated manifolds we discuss various lower bounds on the number of vertices of simplicial and combinatorial manifolds. Moreover, we give a list of all known examples of vertex-minimal triangulations.
Combinatorial Ricci flow on a cusped $3$-manifold is an analogue of Chow-Luo's combinatorial Ricci flow on surfaces and Luo's combinatorial Ricci flow on compact $3$-manifolds with boundary for finding complete hyperbolic metrics on cusped $3$-manifolds. Dual to Casson and Rivin's program of maximizing the volume of angle structures, combinatorial Ricci flow finds the complete hyperbolic metric on a cusped $3$-manifold by minimizing the co-volume of decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metrics. The combinatorial Ricci flow may develop singularities. We overcome this difficulty by extending the flow…
In this paper we extend the classical theory of combinatorial manifolds to the non-homogeneous setting. NH-manifolds are polyhedra which are locally like Euclidean spaces of varying dimensions. We show that many of the properties of classical manifolds remain valid in this wider context. NH-manifolds appear naturally when studying Pachner moves on (classical) manifolds. We introduce the notion of NH-factorization and prove that PL-homeomorphic manifolds are related by a finite sequence of NH-factorizations involving NH-manifolds.
Combinatorial Ricci flow on an ideally triangulated compact 3-manifold with boundary was introduced by Luo as a 3-dimensional analog of Chow-Luo's combinatorial Ricci flow on a triangulated surface and conjectured to find algorithmically the complete hyperbolic metric on the compact 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary. In this paper, we prove Luo's conjecture affirmatively by extending the combinatorial Ricci flow through the singularities of the flow if the ideally triangulated compact 3-manifold with boundary admits such a metric.
In this paper, we adopt combinatorial Ricci curvature flow methods to study the existence of cusped hyperbolic structure on 3-manifolds with torus boundary. For general pseudo 3-manifolds, we prove the long-time existence and the uniqueness for the extended Ricci flow for decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metrics. We prove that the extended Ricci flow converges to a decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metric if and only if there exists a decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metric of zero Ricci curvature. If it is the case, the flow converges exponentially fast. These results apply for cusped hyperbolic …
We define a new combinatorial class of triangulations of closed 3-manifolds, satisfying a weak version of 0-efficiency combined with a weak version of minimality, and study them using twisted squares. As an application, we obtain strong restrictions on the topology of a 3-manifold from the existence of non-smooth maxima of the volume function on the space of circle-valued angle structures.
A combinatorial condition is obtained for when immersed or embedded incompressible surfaces in compact 3-manifolds with tori boundary components remain incompressible after Dehn surgery. A combinatorial characterisation of hierarchies is described. A new proof is given of the topological rigidity theorem of Hass and Scott for 3-manifolds containing immersed incompressible surfaces, as found in cubings of non-positive curvature.
This paper gives a combinatorial description of spin and spin^c-structures on triangulated PL-manifolds of arbitrary dimension. These formulations of spin and spin^c-structures are established primarily for the purpose of aiding in computations. The novelty of the approach is we rely heavily on the naturality of binary symmetric groups to avoid lengthy explicit constructions of smoothings of PL-manifolds.
In this article we give combinatorial criteria to decide whether a transitive cyclic combinatorial d-manifold can be generalized to an infinite family of such complexes, together with an explicit construction in the case that such a family exists. In addition, we substantially extend the classification of combinatorial 3-manifolds with transitive cyclic symmetry up to 22 vertices. Finally, a combination of these results is used to describe new infinite families of transitive cyclic combinatorial manifolds and in particular a family of neighborly combinatorial lens spaces of infinitely many dis…
We present a necessary condition for $(\ell-1)$-connected combinatorial $(2\ell +1)$-manifolds to be tight. As a corollary, we show that there is no tight combinatorial three-manifold with Betti number at most two other than the boundary of the four-simplex and the nine-vertex triangulation of the three-dimensional Klein bottle.
If a real value invariant of compact combinatorial manifolds (with or without boundary) depends only on the number of simplices in each dimension on the manifold, then the invariant is completely determined by Euler characteristics of the manifold and its boundary. So essentially, Euler characteristic is the unique invariant of this type.
It has been pointed out to the author by David Glickenstein that the proof of the (closely related) Lemmas 1.2 and 3.2 in the title paper is incorrect. The statements of both Lemmas are correct, and the purpose of this note is to give a correct argument. The argument is of some interest in its own right.
We prove that for a compact 3-manifold M with boundary admitting an ideal triangulation T with valence at least 10 at all edges, there exists a unique complete hyperbolic metric with totally geodesic boundary, so that T is isotopic to a geometric decomposition of M. Our approach is to use a variant of the combinatorial Ricci flow introduced by Luo [Luo05] for pseudo 3-manifolds. In this case, we prove that the extended Ricci flow converges to the hyperbolic metric exponentially fast.
Every closed oriented PL 4-manifold is a branched cover of the 4-sphere branched over a PL-surface with finitely many singularities by Piergallini [Topology 34(3):497-508, 1995]. This generalizes a long standing result by Hilden and Montesinos to dimension four. Izmestiev and Joswig [Adv. Geom. 3(2):191-225, 2003] gave a combinatorial equivalent of the Hilden and Montesinos result, constructing closed oriented combinatorial 3-manifolds as simplicial branched covers of combinatorial 3-spheres. The construction of Izmestiev and Joswig is generalized and applied to the result of Piergallini, obta…
It is shown that if a real value PL-invariant of closed combinatorial manifolds admits a local formula that depends only on the f-vector of the link of each vertex, then the invariant must be a constant times the Euler characteristic.
A connected combinatorial 2-manifold is called degree-regular if each of its vertices have the same degree. A connected combinatorial 2-manifold is called weakly regular if it has a vertex-transitive automorphism group. Clearly, a weakly regular combinatorial 2-manifold is degree-regular and a degree-regular combinatorial 2-manifold of Euler characteristic - 2 must contain 12 vertices. In 1982, McMullen et al. constructed a 12-vertex geometrically realized triangulation of the double-torus in $\RR^3$. As an abstract simplicial complex, this triangulation is a weakly regular combinatorial 2-man…
We give a complete enumeration of all combinatorial 3-manifolds with 10 vertices: There are precisely 247882 triangulated 3-spheres with 10 vertices as well as 518 vertex-minimal triangulations of the sphere product $S^2\times S^1$ and 615 triangulations of the twisted sphere product $S^2_\times_S^1$. All the 3-spheres with up to 10 vertices are shellable, but there are 29 vertex-minimal non-shellable 3-balls with 9 vertices.
This article studies a discrete geometric structure on triangulated manifolds and an associated curvature flow (combinatorial Yamabe flow). The associated evolution of curvature appears to be like a heat equation on graphs, but it can be shown to not satisfy the maximum principle. The notion of a parabolic-like operator is introduced as an operator which satisfies the maximum principle, but may not be parabolic in the usual sense of operators on graphs. A maximum principle is derived for the curvature of combinatorial Yamabe flow under certain assumptions on the triangulation, and hence the he…
Thurston conjectured that a closed triangulated 3-manifold in which every edge has degree 5 or 6, and no two edges of degree 5 lie in a common 2-cell, has word-hyperbolic fundamental group. We establish Thurston's conjecture by proving that such a manifold admits a piecewise Euclidean metric of non-positive curvature and the universal cover contains no isometrically embedded flat planes. The proof involves a mixture of computer computation and techniques from small cancellation theory.
In a recent work [2] with Datta, we introduced the mu vector (with respect to a given field) of simplicial complexes and used it to study tightness and lower bounds. In this paper, we modify the definition of mu vectors. With the new definition, most results of [2] become correct without the hypothesis of 2-neighbourliness. In particular, the combinatorial Morse inequalities of [2] are now true of all simplicial complexes. As an application, we prove the following generalized lower bound theorem (GLBT) for connected locally tame combinatorial manifolds. If $M$ is such a manifold of dimension $…
We describe an algorithm for the enumeration of (candidates of) vertex-transitive combinatorial $d$-manifolds. With an implementation of our algorithm, we determine, up to combinatorial equivalence, all combinatorial manifolds with a vertex-transitive automorphism group on $n\leq 13$ vertices. With the exception of actions of groups of small order, the enumeration is extended to 14 and 15 vertices.
