We provide two new proofs of a theorem of Cooper, Long and Reid which asserts that, apart from an explicit finite list of exceptional manifolds, any compact orientable irreducible 3-manifold with non-empty boundary has large fundamental group. The first proof is direct and topological; the second is group-theoretic. These techniques are then applied to prove a string of results about (possibly closed) 3-orbifolds, which culminate in the following theorem. If K is a knot in a compact orientable 3-manifold M, such that the complement of K admits a finite-volume hyperbolic structure, then the orbifold obtained by assigning a singularity of order n along K has large fundamental group, for infinitely many positive integers n. We also obtain information about this set of values of n. When M is the 3-sphere, this has implications for the cyclic branched covers over the knot. In this case, we may also weaken the hypothesis that the complement of K is hyperbolic to the assumption that K is non-trivial.
We give examples of open 3-manifolds and 3-orbifolds that exhibit pathological behavior with respect to splitting along surfaces (2-suborbifolds) with nonnegative Euler characteristic.
A strictly convex real projective orbifold is equipped with a natural Finsler metric called the Hilbert metric. In the case that the projective structure is hyperbolic, the Hilbert metric and the hyperbolic metric coincide. We prove that the marked Hilbert length spectrum determines the projective structure only up to projective duality. A corollary is the existence of non-isometric diffeomorphic strictly convex projective manifolds (and orbifolds) that are isospectral. The corollary follows from work of Goldman and Choi, and Benoist.
In this paper, we add examples to Goeritz groups, the mapping class groups of given Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds. We focus on a Heegaard splitting of genus two of a Seifert manifold whose base orbifold is sphere with three exceptional points of sufficiently complex coefficients, where "sufficiently complex" means that every surgery coefficient p_{l} over q_{l} of each exceptional fiber (in a surgery description) satisfies that q_{l} is congruent to neither +1 or -1 modulo p_{l}.
We give a complete proof of Thurston's Orbifold Theorem for very good 3-orbifolds of cyclic type. An orbifold is said to be very good when it has a finite cover which is a manifold. A 3-orbifold is of cyclic type if the singular set is a non-empty 1-manifold transverse to the boundary.
We analyze the orbifolds that can be obtained as quotients of hyperbolic 3-manifolds admitting a Heegaard splitting of genus two by their orientation preserving isometry groups. The genus two hyperbolic 3-manifolds are exactly the hyperbolic 2-fold branched coverings of 3-bridge links. If the 3-bridge link is a knot, we prove that the underlying topological space of the quotient orbifold is either the 3-sphere or a lens space and we describe the combinatorial setting of the singular set for each possible isometry group. In the case of 3-bridge links with two or three components, the situation …
We show the manifolds at infinity of the complex hyperbolic triangle groups $Δ_{3,4,4;\infty}$ and $Δ_{3,4,6;\infty}$,are one-cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds $m038$ and $s090$ in the Snappy Census respectively.That is,these two manifolds admit spherical CR uniformizations. Moreover, these two hyperbolic 3-manifolds above can be obtained by Dehn surgeries on the first cusp of the two-cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold $m295$ in the Snappy Census with slopes $2$ and $4$ respectively. In general,the main result in this paper allow us to conjecture that the manifold at infinity of the complex hyperbolic t…
One can define what it means for a compact manifold with corners to be a "contractible manifold with contractible faces." Two combinatorially equivalent, contractible manifolds with contractible faces are diffeomorphic if and only if their 4-dimensional faces are diffeomorphic. It follows that two simple convex polytopes are combinatorially equivalent if and only if they are diffeomorphic as manifolds with corners. On the other hand, by a result of Akbulut, for each n > 3, there are smooth, contractible n-manifolds with contractible faces which are combinatorially equivalent but not diffeomorp…
We show that if $B$ is an aspherical 2-orbifold in one of the families known to have orbifold fundamental groups of weight 1 then $B$ is the base of a Seifert fibration of a 2-knot manifold $M(K)$.
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…
We construct a combinatorial invariant of 3-orbifolds with singular set a link that generalizes the Turaev torsion invariant of 3-manifolds. We give several gluing formulas from which we derive two consequences. The first is an understanding of how the components of the invariant change when we remove a curve from the singular set. The second is a formula relating the invariant of the 3-orbifold to the Turaev torsion invariant of the underlying 3-manifold in the case when the singular set is a nullhomologous knot.
We begin by showing that every real analytic orbifold has a real analytic Riemannian metric. It follows that every reduced real analytic orbifold can be expressed as a quotient of a real analytic manifold by a real analytic almost free action of a compact Lie group. We then extend a well-known result of Nomizu and Ozeki concerning Riemannian metrics on manifolds to the orbifold setting: Let $X$ be a smooth (real analytic) orbifold and let $α$ be a smooth (real analytic) Riemannian metric on $X$. Then $X$ has a complete smooth (real analytic) Riemannian metric conformal to $α$.
We classify orthogonal actions of finite groups on Euclidean vector spaces for which the corresponding quotient space is a topological, homological or Lipschitz manifold, possibly with boundary. In particular, our results answer the question of when the underlying space of an orbifold is a manifold.
We prove that a closed 3-orbifold that fibers over a hyperbolic polygonal 2-orbifold admits a family of hyperbolic cone structures that are viewed as regeneration of the polygon, provided that the perimeter is minimal.
We prove that a connected 2-dimensional orbifold with finitely generated and infinite orbifold fundamental group is good. We also describe all the good 2-dimensional orbifolds with finite orbifold fundamental groups
An old problem asks whether a Riemannian manifold can be isospectral to a Riemannian orbifold with nontrivial singular set. In this short note we show that under the assumption of Schanuel's conjecture in transcendental number theory, this is impossible whenever the orbifold and manifold in question are length-commensurable compact locally symmetric spaces of nonpositive curvature associated to simple Lie groups.
Let M be a closed orientable Seifert fibered 3-manifold with a hyperbolic base 2-orbifold, or equivalently, admitting a geometry modeled on H^2 \times R or the universal cover of SL(2,R). Our main result is that the connected component of the identity map in the diffeomorphism group Diff(M) is either contractible or homotopy equivalent to the circle, according as the center of the fundamental group of M is trivial or infinite cyclic. Apart from the remaining case of non-Haken infranilmanifolds, this completes the homeomorphism classifications of Diff(M) and of the space of Seifert fiberings of…
It is well known that, among closed spherical Seifert three-manifolds, only lens spaces and prism manifolds admit several Seifert fibrations which are not equivalent up to diffeomorphism. Moreover the former admit infinitely many fibrations, and the latter exactly two. In this work, we analyse the non-uniqueness phenomenon for orbifold Seifert fibrations. For any closed spherical Seifert three-orbifold, we determine the number of its inequivalent fibrations. When these are in a finite number (in fact, at most three) we provide a complete list. In case of infinitely many fibrations, we describe…
In this article we prove a generalization of Selberg's lemma on the existence of torsion free, finite index subgroups of arithmetic groups. Some of the geometric applications are the resolution a conjecture of Nimershiem and answers to questions of Long-Reid and the author.
We show that if $g$ is a Riemannian metric on a closed piecewise locally symmetric manifold $M$, then the lift of $g$ to the universal cover $\widetilde{M}$ has a discrete isometry group. We also show that the index $[\Isom(\widetilde{M}): π_1(M)]$ is bounded by a constant independent of $g$.
In this survey, we study representations of finitely generated groups into Lie groups, focusing on the deformation spaces of convex real projective structures on closed manifolds and orbifolds, with an excursion on projective structures on surfaces. We survey the basics of the theory of character varieties, geometric structures on orbifolds, and Hilbert geometry. The main examples of finitely generated groups for us will be Fuchsian groups, 3-manifold groups and Coxeter groups.
In this paper, we prove several structure theorems for locally conformally flat, positive Yamabe orbifolds and nonnegative scalar curvature, ALE manifolds. These two kinds of spaces can be related by conformal blow-up and conformal compactification. For the orbifolds, we prove that such orbifolds admit a manifold cover. For the ALE manifolds, the homomorphism of the fundamental group for the ALE space induced by the embedding of the ALE end is always injective. Using these properties, several classifications of such ALE manifolds and orbifolds are given in low dimensions. As an application to …
We extend Matveev's theory of complexity for 3-manifolds, based on simple spines, to (closed, orientable, locally orientable) 3-orbifolds. We prove naturality and finiteness for irreducible 3-orbifolds, and, with certain restrictions and subtleties, additivity under orbifold connected sum. We also develop the theory of handle decompositions for 3-orbifolds and the corresponding theory of normal 2-suborbifolds.
The famous Haken-Kneser-Milnor theorem states that every 3-manifold can be expressed in a unique way as a connected sum of prime 3-manifolds. The analogous statement for 3-orbifolds has been part of the folklore for several years, and it was commonly believed that slight variations on the argument used for manifolds would be sufficient to establish it. We demonstrate in this paper that this is not the case, proving that the apparently natural notion of ``essential'' system of spherical 2-orbifolds is not adequate in this context. We also show that the statement itself of the theorem must be gi…
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 …
In this paper we study non-negatively curved and rationally elliptic GKM$_4$ manifolds and orbifolds. We show that their rational cohomology rings are isomorphic to the rational cohomology of certain model orbifolds. These models are quotients of isometric actions of finite groups on non-negatively curved torus orbifolds. Moreover, we give a simplified proof of a characterisation of products of simplices among orbit spaces of locally standard torus manifolds. This characterisation was originally proved in [Wiemeler, Torus manifolds and non-negative curvature, arXiv:1401.0403] and was used ther…
Volume is a natural measure of complexity of a Riemannian manifold. In this survey, we discuss the results and conjectures concerning n-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds and orbifolds of small volume.
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…
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…
Let G be a graph in a 3-manifold M. We compress the pair (M,G) along admissible 2-spheres as long as possible. What we get is a root of (M,G). Our main result is that for any pair (M,G) the root exists and is unique. As a corollary we get an easy proof of Petronio's theorem on prime decompositions of 3-orbifolds.
The main result of this paper is a formula for calculating the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 4-manifolds with fixed-point free circle actions. This is done by showing under suitable conditions the existence of a diffeomorphism between the moduli space of the 4-manifold and the moduli space of the quotient 3-orbifold. Two corollaries include b_+>1 4-manifolds with fixed-point free circle actions are simple type and a new proof that the four dimensional invariants of $Y \times S^1$ are equal to the the three dimensional invariants of $Y$. An infinite number of b_+=1 4-manifolds where the Seiberg-…
Let G be a finite group and let M be a G-manifold. We introduce the concept of generalized orbifold invariants of M/G associated to an arbitrary group Gamma, an arbitrary Gamma-set, and an arbitrary covering space of a connected manifold Sigma whose fundamental group is Gamma. Our orbifold invariants have a natural and simple geometric origin in the context of locally constant G-equivariant maps from G-principal bundles over covering spaces of Sigma to the G-manifold M. We calculate generating functions of orbifold Euler characteristic of symmetric products of orbifolds associated to arbitrary…
In this paper we address the relation between the orbifold fundamental group and the topology of the underlying space. In particular, under the assumption that the orbifold fundamental group is equal to the fundamental group of the underlying space, we prove Poincaré Duality for orbifolds of dimension 4 and 5.
The main purpose of this paper is to summarize the basic ingredients, illustrated with examples, of a pseudoholomorphic curve theory for symplectic 4-orbifolds. These are extensions of relevant work of Gromov, McDuff and Taubes on symplectic 4-manifolds concerning pseudoholomorphic curves and Seiberg-Witten theory. They form the technical backbone of the proof that a symplectic s-cobordism of elliptic 3-manifolds (with a canonical contact structure on the boundary) is smoothly a product. One interesting feature of the theory is that existence of pseudoholomorphic curves gives certain restricti…
This paper is a gentle introduction to some recent results involving the theory of gerbes over orbifolds for topologists, geometers and physicists. We introduce gerbes on manifolds, orbifolds, the Dixmier-Douady class, Beilinson-Deligne orbifold cohomology, Cheeger-Simons orbifold cohomology and string connections.
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…
We study the size of the isometry group Isom(M, g) of Riemannian manifolds (M, g) as g varies. For M not admitting a circle action, we show that the order of Isom(M, g) can be universally bounded in terms of the bounds on Ricci curvature, diameter, and injectivity radius of M. This generalizes results known for negative Ricci curvature to all manifolds. More generally we establish a similar universal bound on the index of the deck group pi_1(M) in the isometry group Isom(X, g) of the universal cover X in the absence of suitable actions by connected groups. We apply this to characterize locally…
We prove that any generating tuple of the fundamental group of a sufficiently large 2-dimensional orbifold is represented by an almost orbifold covering. As a corollary we obtain a generalization of Louder's Theorem which asserts that any two generating tuples of the fundamental group of a closed surface are Nielsen equivalent.
We study the Yamabe invariants of cylindrical manifolds and compact orbifolds with a finite number of singularities, by means of conformal geometry and the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer $L^2$-index theory. For an $n$-orbifold $M$ with singularities $Σ_Γ = \{(\check{p}_1, Γ_1), ..., (\check{p}_s, Γ_s)\}$ (where each group $Γ_j<O(n)$ is of finite order), we define and study the \emph{orbifold Yamabe invariant} $Y^{\orb}(M)$. We prove that $Y^{\orb}(M)$ coincides with the corresponding $h$-$\emph{cylindrical Yamabe invariant}$ $Y^{h\textrm{-}\cyl}(M \setminus \{\check{p}_1, ..., \check{p}_s\})$ defined by…
Revisiting a construction due to Vigneras, we exhibit small pairs of orbifolds and manifolds of dimension 2 and 3 arising from arithmetic Fuchsian and Kleinian groups that are Laplace isospectral (in fact, representation equivalent) but nonisometric.
``An orbifold is a space which is locally modeled on the quotient of a vector space by a finite group.'' This sentence is so easily said or written that more than one person has missed some of the subtleties hidden by orbifolds. Orbifolds were first introduced by Satake under the name ``V-manifold'' and rediscovered by Thurston who called them ``orbifolds''. Both of them used only faithful actions to define their orbifolds (these are the so called reduced orbifolds). This intuitive restriction is very unnatural mathematically if we want for example to study suborbifolds. Orbispaces are to topo…
Let O be a compact orientable 3-orbifold with non-empty singular locus and a finite volume hyperbolic structure. (Equivalently, O is the quotient of hyperbolic 3-space by a lattice in PSL(2,C) with torsion.) Then we prove that O has a tower of finite-sheeted covers {O_i} with linear growth of p-homology, for some prime p. This means that the dimension of the first homology, with mod p coefficients, of the fundamental group of O_i grows linearly in the covering degree. The proof combines techniques from 3-manifold theory with group-theoretic methods, including the Golod-Shafarevich inequality a…
An orbifold is a topological space modeled on quotient spaces of a finite group actions. We can define the universal cover of an orbifold and the fundamental group as the deck transformation group. Let $G$ be a Lie group acting on a space $X$. We show that the space of isotopy-equivalence classes of $(G,X)$-structures on a compact orbifold $Σ$ is locally homeomorphic to the space of representations of the orbifold fundamental group of $Σ$ to $G$ following the work of Thurston, Morgan, and Lok. This implies that the deformation space of $(G, X)$-structures on $Σ$ is locally homeomorphic to the …
We determine the three hyperbolic 5-orbifolds of smallest volume among compact arithmetic orbifolds, and we identify their fundamental groups with hyperbolic Coxeter groups. This gives two different ways to compute the volume of these orbifolds.
We study Chern-Simons theory on 3-manifolds M that are circle-bundles over 2-dimensional orbifolds S by the method of Abelianisation. This method, which completely sidesteps the issue of having to integrate over the moduli space of non-Abelian flat connections, reduces the complete partition function of the non-Abelian theory on M to a 2-dimensional Abelian theory on the orbifold S which is easily evaluated.
Associated to any Coxeter system $(W,S)$, there is a labeled simplicial complex $L$ and a contractible CW-complex $Σ_L$ (the Davis complex) on which $W$ acts properly and cocompactly. $Σ_L$ admits a cellulation under which the nerve of each vertex is $L$. It follows that if $L$ is a triangulation of $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$, then $Σ_L$ is a contractible $n$-manifold. In this case, the orbit space, $K_L:=Σ_L/W$, is a \emph{Coxeter orbifold}. We prove a result analogous to the JSJ-decomposition for 3-dimensional manifolds: Every 3-dimensional Coxeter orbifold splits along Euclidean suborbifolds into t…
In 1992, Reid asked whether hyperbolic 3-manifolds with the same geodesic length spectra are necessarily commensurable. While this is known to be true for arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifolds, the non-arithmetic case is still open. Building towards a negative answer to this question, Futer and Millichap recently constructed infinitely many pairs of non-commensurable, non-arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifolds which have the same volume and whose length spectra begin with the same first $m$ geodesic lengths. In the present paper, we show that this phenomenon is surprisingly common in the arithmetic set…
We extend the notion of Hitchin component from surface groups to orbifold groups and prove that this gives new examples of higher Teichmüller spaces. We show that the Hitchin component of an orbifold group is homeomorphic to an open ball and we compute its dimension explicitly. We then give applications to the study of the pressure metric, cyclic Higgs bundles, and the deformation theory of real projective structures on $3$-manifolds.
