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 and results about p-adic analytic pro-p groups.
This has several consequences. Firstly, the fundamental group of O has at least exponential subgroup growth. Secondly, the covers {O_i} have positive Heegaard gradient. Thirdly, we use it to show that a group-theoretic conjecture of Lubotzky and Zelmanov would imply that O has large fundamental group. This implication uses a new theorem of the author, which will appear in a forthcoming paper. These results all provide strong evidence for the conjecture that any closed orientable hyperbolic 3-orbifold with non-empty singular locus has large fundamental group.
Many of the above results apply also to 3-manifolds commensurable with an orientable finite-volume hyperbolic 3-orbifold with non-empty singular locus. This includes all closed orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds with rank two fundamental group, and all arithmetic 3-manifolds.
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…
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.
For any $n>1$, we construct examples branched Galois coverings from $M$ to the nth projective space ${\mathbb P}^n$ where $M$ is one of $({\mathbb P}^1)^n$, ${\mathbb C}^n$ or $(B_1)^n$, and $B_1$ is the 1-ball. In terms of orbifolds, this amounts to giving examples of orbifolds over ${\mathbb P}^n$ uniformized by $M$.We also discuss the related "orbifold braid groups".
Let G be an arithmetic Kleinian group, and let O be the associated hyperbolic 3-orbifold or 3-manifold. In this paper, we prove that, in many cases, G is large, which means that some finite index subgroup admits a surjective homomorphism onto a non-abelian free group. This has many consequences, including that O has infinite virtual first Betti number and G has super-exponential subgroup growth. Our first result, which forms the basis for the entire paper, is that G is commensurable with a lattice containing the Klein group of order 4. Our second result is that if G has a finite index subgroup…
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 that any immersion, which is not a covering of an embedded 2-orbifold, of a totally geodesic hyperbolic turnover in a complete orientable hyperbolic 3-orbifold is contained in a hyperbolic 3-suborbifold with totally geodesic boundary, called the "turnover core,'' whose volume is bounded from above by a function depending only on the area of the given turnover. Furthermore, we show that, for a given type of turnover, there are only finitely many possibilities for the turnover core. As a corollary, if the volume of a complete orientable hyperbolic 3-orbifold is at least 2πand if the fund…
We calculate the Chern-Simons invariants of the hyperbolic orbifolds of the knot with Conway's notation $C(2n, 3)$ using the Schläfli formula for the generalized Chern-Simons function on the family of $C(2n,3)$ cone-manifold structures. We present the concrete and explicit formula of them. We apply the general instructions of Hilden, Lozano, and Montesinos-Amilibia and extend the Ham and Lee's methods. As an application, we calculate the Chern-Simons invariants of cyclic coverings of the hyperbolic $C(2n,3)$ orbifolds.
Given a sub-hyperbolic semi-rational branched covering which is not CLH-equivalent a rational map, it must have the non-empty canonical Thurston obstruction. By using this canonical Thurston obstruction, we decompose this dynamical system in this paper into several sub-dynamical systems. Each of these sub-dynamical systems is either a post-critically finite type branched covering or a sub-hyperbolic semi-rational type branched covering. If a sub-dynamical system is a post-critically finite type branched covering with a hyperbolic orbifold, then it has no Thurston obstruction and is combinatori…
Let ${\mathfrak M}$ be a closed, orientable, hyperbolic 3-orbifold whose singular set is a link, and such that $π_1({\mathfrak M})$ contains no hyperbolic triangle group. We show that if the underlying manifold $|{\mathfrak M}|$ is irreducible, and $|{\mathfrak M}|$ is irreducible for every two-sheeted (orbifold) covering $\widetilde{\mathfrak M}$ of ${\mathfrak M}$, and if ${\rm vol} {\mathfrak M}\le1.72$, then $\dim H_1({\mathfrak M};{\mathbb Z}_2)\le 15$. Furthermore, if ${\rm vol} {\mathfrak M}\le1.22$ then $\dim H_1({\mathfrak M};{\mathbb Z}_2)\le 11$, and if ${\rm vol} {\mathfrak M}\le0.…
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 that the deformation space of convex real projective structures, that is, projectively flat torsion-free connections with the geodesic convexity property on a compact 2-orbifold of negative Euler characteristic is homeomorphic to a cell of certain dimension. The basic techniques are from Thurston's lecture notes on hyperbolic 2-orbifolds, and the previous work of Goldman on convex real projective structures on surfaces.
For a hyperbolic $3$-orbifold with underlying space the $3$-sphere, we obtain a lower bound on its volume in the case that it contains an essential $2$-suborbifold with underlying space the $2$-sphere with four cone points. Our techniques involve computing the guts of the orbifold split along the $2$-suborbifold via a careful analysis of its topology. We also characterize the orbifolds of this type that have empty guts.
In this paper we define and study the "ghost loop orbifold" of an orbifold $X$ consisting of those loops that remain constant in the coarse moduli space of $X$. We construct a configuration space model for the ghost loop orbifold using an idea of G. Segal. From this we exhibit the relation between the Hochschild and cyclic homologies of the inertia orbifold of $X$ (that generate the so-called twisted sectors in string theory) and the ordinary and equivariant homologies of the ghost loop orbifold. We also show how this clarifies the relation between orbifold K-theory, Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomol…
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 discuss the geometry of some arithmetic orbifolds locally isometric to a product of real hyperbolic spaces of dimension two and three, and prove that certain sequences of non-uniform orbifolds are convergent to this space in a geometric ("Benjamini--Schramm") sense for hyperbolic three--space and a product of hyperbolic planes. We also deal with arbitrary sequences of maximal arithmetic three--dimensional hyperbolic lattices defined over a quadratic or cubic field. A motivating application is the study of Betti numbers of Bianchi groups.
This is the first of a series of papers which are devoted to a comprehensive theory of maps between orbifolds. In this paper, we define the maps in the more general context of orbispaces, and establish several basic results concerning the topological structure of the space of such maps. In particular, we show that the space of such maps of C^r-class between smooth orbifolds has a natural Banach orbifold structure if the domain of the map is compact, generalizing the corresponding result in the manifold case. Motivations and applications of the theory come from string theory and the theory of p…
In this paper, we explore the theme of orbifold stratified spaces and establish a general criterion for them to be smooth orbifolds. This criterion utilizes the notion of linear stratification on the gluing bundles for the orbifold stratified spaces. We introduce a concept of good gluing structure to ensure a smooth structure on the stratified space. As an application, we provide an orbifold structure on the coarse moduli space $\bar{M}_{g, n}$ of stable genus $g$ curves with $n$-marked points. Using the gluing theory for $\bar{M}_{g, n} $ associated to horocycle structures, there is a natural…
Let ${\mathfrak M}$ be a closed, orientable, hyperbolic 3-orbifold such that $π_1({\mathfrak M})$ contains no hyperbolic triangle group. We show that strict upper bounds of 0.07625, 0.1525 and 0.22875 for ${\rm vol}\ {\mathfrak M}$ imply respective upper bounds of 23, 43 and 79 for $\dim H_1({\mathfrak M};{\mathbb F}_2 )$. Stronger results hold if we assume that the singular set $Σ$ is a link; specifically, under this assumption, strict upper bounds of 0.305, 0.4575, 0.61, 0.7625 and 0.915 for ${\rm vol}\ {\mathfrak M}$ imply respective upper bounds of 7, 13, 14, 28 and 29 for ${\rm dim}\ H_1(…
We compute and analyse the moduli space of those real projective structures on a hyperbolic 3-orbifold that are modelled on a single ideal tetrahedron in projective space. Parameterisations are given in terms of classical invariants, traces, and geometric invariants, cross ratios.
Let $\mathcal{O}$ be a closed orientable 2-orbifold of negative Euler characteristic. Huebschmann constructed the Atiyah-Bott-Goldman type symplectic form $ω$ on the deformation space $\mathcal{C}(\mathcal{O})$ of convex projective structures on $\mathcal{O}$. We show that the deformation space $\mathcal{C}(\mathcal{O})$ of convex projective structures on $\mathcal{O}$ admits a global Darboux coordinates system with respect to $ω$. To this end, we show that $\mathcal{C}(\mathcal{O})$ can be decomposed into smaller symplectic spaces. In the course of the proof, we also study the deformation spa…
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.
``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 G be an n-dimensional crystallographic group (n-space group). If G is a Z-reducible, then the flat n-orbifold E^n/G has a nontrivial fibered orbifold structure. We prove that this structure can be described by a generalized Calabi construction, that is, E^n/G is represented as the quotient of the Cartesian product of two flat orbifolds under the diagonal action of a structure group of isometries. We determine the structure group and prove that it is finite if and only if the fibered orbifold structure has an orthogonally dual fibered orbifold structure. A geometric fibration of E^n/G corre…
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.
In this paper we parametrize the Teichmüller spaces of constructible Koebe groups, that is Kleinian group that arise as covering of $2-$orbifolds determined by certain normal subgroups of their fundamental groups. We also study the covering spaces of the Teichmüller spaces of those Koebe groups. Finally we prove an isomorphisms theorem similar to the Bers-Greenberg theorem for Fuchsian groups. Our method yields a technique to compute explictly generators of Koebe groups, possibly by programming a computer.
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.
We prove an analogue of the result of Hsiang and Kleiner for 4-dimensional compact orbifolds with positive curvature and an isometric circle action. Additionally, we prove that when the underlying space is simply connected, then the orbifold fundamental group provides a bound on the failure of integer-valued Poincare Duality of the underlying space, and if the orbifold is simply connected, then ineteger-valued Poincre Duality holds for the underlying space.
A classic theorem of Kazhdan and Margulis states that for any semisimple Lie group without compact factors, there is a positive lower bound on the covolume of lattices. H. C. Wang's subsequent quantitative analysis showed that the fundamental domain of any lattice contains a ball whose radius depends only on the group itself. A direct consequence is a positive minimum volume for orbifolds modeled on the corresponding symmetric space. However, sharp bounds are known only for hyperbolic orbifolds of dimensions two and three, and recently for quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds of all dimensions. A…
Each lens space has a canonical contact structure which lifts to the distribution of complex lines on the three-sphere. In this paper, we show that a symplectic homology cobordism between two lens spaces, which is given with the canonical contact structure on the boundary, must be diffeomorphic to the product of a lens space with the unit interval. As one of the main ingredients in the proof, we also derive in this paper the adjunction and intersection formulae for pseudoholomorphic curves in an almost complex 4-orbifold, extending the relevant work of Gromov and McDuff in the manifold setting…
