We give examples of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds with first Betti number 2 and 3 for which no sequence of finite abelian covering spaces increases the first Betti number. For 3-manifolds $M$ with first Betti number 2 we give a characterization in terms of some generalized self-linking numbers of $M$, for there to exist a family of $\mathbb{Z}_n$ covering spaces,
$M_n$, in which $β_1(M_n)$ increases linearly with $n$.
The latter generalizes work of M. Katz and C. Lescop [KL], by showing that the non-vanishing of any one of these invariants of $M$ is sufficient to guarantee certain optimal systolic inequalities for $M$ (by work of Ivanov and Katz [IK]).
This article introduces an application of Ghrist barcodes in the study of persistent Betti numbers derived from vortex nerve complexes found in triangulations of video frames. A Ghrist barcode is a topology of data pictograph useful in representing the persistence of the features of changing shapes. The basic approach is to introduce a free Abelian group representation of intersecting filled polygons on the barycenters of the triangles of Alexandroff nerves. An Alexandroff nerve is a maximal collection of triangles with a common vertex in the triangulation of a finite, bounded planar region. I…
Suppose X is any finite complex with vanishing L^2 Betti number. We prove upper bounds on the Betti numbers for regular coverings of X, sublinear in the order of covering. The bounds are sensitive to the Novikov-Shubin invariants of X, and are improved in the presence of a spectral gap.
The regular \Z^r-covers of a finite cell complex X are parameterized by the Grassmannian of r-planes in H^1(X,\Q). Moving about this variety, and recording when the Betti numbers b_1,..., b_i of the corresponding covers are finite carves out certain subsets Ω^i_r(X) of the Grassmannian. We present here a method, essentially going back to Dwyer and Fried, for computing these sets in terms of the jump loci for homology with coefficients in rank 1 local systems on X. Using the exponential tangent cones to these jump loci, we show that each Ω-invariant is contained in the complement of a union of …
The virtual Betti number conjecture states that any hyperbolic three-manifold has a finite cover with positive first Betti number. We show that this would follow if it were known that the derived series of the fundamental group $G$ of a hyperbolic three-manifold satisfies a certain stability property. The stability property is the statement that if all the quotients $G^i/G^{i+1}$ of the derived series $G^i$ of $G$ are finite, then the derived series stabilises. The proof involves basic facts regarding finite group actions on homology spheres.
We show that if M is a surface bundle over S^1 with fiber of genus 2, then for any integer n, M has a finite cover tilde(M) with b_1(tilde(M)) > n. A corollary is that M can be geometrized using only the `non-fiber' case of Thurston's Geometrization Theorem for Haken manifolds.
We study the asymptotic growth of Betti numbers in tower of finite covers and provide simple proofs of approximation results, which were previously obtained by Calegari-Emerton, in the generality of arbitrary p-adic analytic towers of covers. Further, we also obtain partial results about arbitrary pro-$p$ towers.
We present a method for deciding when a regular abelian cover of a finite CW-complex has finite Betti numbers. To start with, we describe a natural parameter space for all regular covers of a finite CW-complex X, with group of deck transformations a fixed abelian group A, which in the case of free abelian covers of rank r coincides with the Grassmanian of r-planes in H^1(X,\Q). Inside this parameter space, there is a subset Ω_A^i(X) consisting of all the covers with finite Betti numbers up to degree i. Building on work of Dwyer and Fried, we show how to compute these sets in terms of the jump …
To a rational homology sphere graph manifold one can associate a weighted tree invariant called splice diagram. It was shown earlier that the splice diagram determines the universal abelian cover of the manifold. We will in this article turn the proof of this in to an algorithm to explicitly construct the universal abelian cover from the splice diagram.
We derive Price inequalities for harmonic forms on manifolds without conjugate points and with a negative Ricci upper bound. The techniques employed in the proof work particularly well for manifolds of non-positive sectional curvature, and in this case we prove a strengthened Price inequality. We employ these inequalities to study the asymptotic behavior of the Betti numbers of coverings of Riemannian manifolds without conjugate points. Finally, we give a vanishing result for $L^{2}$-Betti numbers of closed manifolds without conjugate points.
It was shown in my earlier article that the splice diagram of a rational homology sphere graph manifold determines the manifolds universal abelian cover. In this article we use the proof of this to give a condition on the splice diagram to determine when the universal abelian cover itself is a rational homology sphere.
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a 4-manifold to be a branched covering of $CP^2$, $S^2\times S^2$, $S^2 \mathbin{\tilde\times} S^2$ and $S^3 \times S^1$, which are expressed in terms of the Betti numbers and the intersection form of the 4-manifold.
We study the growth of the order of torsion subgroups of the homology in a tower of finite abelian coverings. In particular, we prove that it is exponential for when the tower converges to the maximal free abelian cover of a link complement when the first nonzero Alexander polynomial has positive logarithmic Mahler measure.
Given a reducible $3$-manifold $M$ with an aspherical summand in its prime decomposition and a homeomorphism $f\colon M\to M$, we construct a map of degree one from a finite cover of $M\rtimes_f S^1$ to a mapping torus of a certain aspherical $3$-manifold. We deduce that $M\rtimes_f S^1$ has virtually infinite first Betti number, except when all aspherical summands of $M$ are virtual $T^2$-bundles. This verifies all cases of a conjecture of T.-J. Li and Y. Ni, that any mapping torus of a reducible $3$-manifold $M$ not covered by $S^2\times S^1$ has virtually infinite first Betti number, except…
We announce new results concerning the asymptotic behavior of the Betti numbers of higher rank locally symmetric spaces as their volumes tend to infinity. Our main theorem is a uniform version of the Lück Approximation Theorem \cite{luck}, which is much stronger than the linear upper bounds on Betti numbers given by Gromov in \cite{BGS}. The basic idea is to adapt the theory of local convergence, originally introduced for sequences of graphs of bounded degree by Benjamimi and Schramm, to sequences of Riemannian manifolds. Using rigidity theory we are able to show that when the volume tends to …
To a rational homology sphere graph manifold one can associate a weighted tree invariant called splice diagram. In this article we prove a sufficient numerical condition on the splice diagram for a graph manifold to be a singularity link. We also show that if two manifolds have the same splice diagram, then their universal abelian covers are homeomorphic. To prove the last theorem we have to generalize our notions to orbifolds.
Let $K$ be a tame knot embedded in $\mathbf{S}^3$. We address the problem of finding the minimal degree non-cyclic cover $p:X \rightarrow \mathbf{S}^3 \smallsetminus K$. When $K$ has non-trivial Alexander polynomial we construct finite non-abelian representations $ρ:π_1\left(\mathbf{S}^3 \smallsetminus K\right) \rightarrow G$, and provide bounds for the order of $G$ in terms of the crossing number of $K$ which is an improvement on a result of Broaddus in this case. Using classical covering space theory along with the theory of Alexander stratifications we establish an upper and lower bound for…
We provide the twisted Alexander polynomials of finite abelian covers over three-dimensional manifolds whose boundary is a finite union of tori. This is a generalization of a well-known formula for the usual Alexander polynomial of knots in finite cyclic branched covers over the three-dimensional sphere.
For a small cover Q^n and any principal (Z_2)^m-bundle M^n over Q^n, it was shown in a previous work of the author that the total sum of Z_2-Betti numbers of M^n is at least 2^m. In this paper, we prove that when M^n is connected, the total sum of Z_2-Betti numbers of such an M^n exactly equals 2^m if and only if M^n is homeomorphic to a product of spheres, and Q^n in this case must be a generalized real Bott manifold (or equivalent, Q^n is a small cover over a product of simplices).
We prove an additivity property for the normalized Seiberg-Witten invariants with respect to the universal abelian cover of those 3-manifolds, which are obtained via negative rational Dehn surgeries along connected sum of algebraic knots. Although the statement is purely topological, we use the theory of complex singularities in several steps of the proof. This topological covering additivity property can be compared with certain analytic properties of normal surface singularities, especially with functorial behaviour of the (equivariant) geometric genus of singularities. We present several ex…
We show that a finite type duality group of dimension $d>2$ is the fundamental group of a $(d+3)$-manifold with rationally acyclic universal cover. We use this to find closed manifolds with rationally acyclic universal cover and some nonvanishing $L^2$-Betti numbers outside the middle dimension, which contradicts a rational analogue of a conjecture of Singer.
We prove that any smooth action of $\mathbb Z^{m-1}, m\ge 3$ on an $m$-dimensional manifold that preserves a measure such that all non-identity elements of the suspension have positive entropy is essentially algebraic, i.e. isomorphic up to a finite permutation to an affine action on the torus or its factor by $\pm\Id$. Furthermore this isomorphism has nice geometric properties, in particular, it is smooth in the sense of Whitney on a set whose complement has arbitrary small measure. We further derive restrictions on topology of manifolds that may admit such actions, for example, excluding sph…
Embolic volume of compact manifolds is defined in terms of Berger's embolic inequality. In this paper, we show a result of relating embolic volume to the first Betti number. The proof relies on Gromov's covering argument appeared in systolic geometry. Berger called this method covering trick. We exploit and present more details to covering trick in the paper.
We consider a simple and natural coboundary operator, on the Lie algebra valued differential forms on a manifold, which in the abelian case reduces to usual exterior derivative of such forms. Using the corresponding de Rham cohomology Lie superalgebra H*(M,G) we obtain numerical smooth invariants--as opposed to homotopy invariants--for manifolds. The corresponding Hodge theory yields finiteness of nonabelian Betti numbers. A genralized Poincaré lemma, along with a Poincaré duality, a Mayer-Vietoris, and a particularly empowered Bockstein makes our cohomology computable. Bockstein also allows u…
We show that the regulator, which is the difference between the homology torsion and the combinatorial Ray-Singer torsion, of fnite abelian coverings of a fixed complex has sub-exponential growth rate.
We discuss properties of complex algebraic orbifold groups, their characteristic varieties, and their abelian covers. In particular, we deal with the question of (quasi)-projectivity of orbifold groups. We also prove a structure theorem for the variety of characters of normal-crossing quasi-projective orbifold groups. Finally, we extend Sakuma's formula for the first Betti number of abelian covers of orbifold fundamental groups. Several examples are presented, including a compact orbifold group which is not projective and a Zariski pair of plane projective curves that can be told by considerin…
The Atiyah conjecture predicts that the L2-Betti numbers of a finite CW-complex with torsion-free fundamental group are integers. We show that the Atiyah conjecture holds (with an additional technical condition) for direct and inverse limits of directed systems of groups for which it is true. As a corollary it holds for residually torsion-free solvable groups, e.g. for pure braid groups or for positive 1-relator groups with torsion free abelianization. Putting everything together we establish a new class of groups for which the Atiyah conjecture holds, which contains all free groups and in par…
Abelian covers of hyperbolic $3$-manifolds are ubiquitous. We prove the local mixing theorem of the frame flow for abelian covers of closed hyperbolic $3$-manifolds. We obtain a classification theorem for measures invariant under the horospherical subgroup. We also describe applications to the prime geodesic theorem as well as to other counting and equidistribution problems. Our results are proved for any abelian cover of a homogeneous space $Γ_0\backslash G$ where $G$ is a rank one simple Lie group and $Γ_0<G$ is a convex cocompact Zariski dense subgroup.
We propose an intuitive interpretation for nontrivial $L^2$-Betti numbers of compact Riemann surfaces in terms of certain loops in embedded pairs of pants. This description uses twisted homology associated to the Hurewicz map of the surface, and it satisfies a sewing property with respect to a large class of pair-of-pants decompositions. Applications to supersymmetric quantum mechanics incorporating Aharonov-Bohm phases are briefly discussed, for both point particles and topological solitons (abelian and non-abelian vortices) in two dimensions.
Given a rational homology sphere M, whose splice diagram satisfy the semigroup condition, Neumann and Wahl were able to define a complete intersection surface singularity called splice diagram singularity from the splice diagram of M. They were also able to show that under an additional hypothesis on M called the congruence condition, the link of the splice diagram singularity is the universal abelian cover of M. In this article we generalize the congruence condition to the class of orbifolds called graph orbifold. We show that under a small additional hypothesis, this orbifold congruence cond…
We investigate the cohomology of the level 4 subgroup of the braid group, namely, the kernel of the mod 4 reduction of the Burau representation at $t=-1$. This group is also equal to the kernel of the mod 2 abelianization of the pure braid group. We give an exact formula for the first Betti number; it is a quartic polynomial in the number of strands. We also show that, like the pure braid group, the first homology satisfies uniform representation stability in the sense of Church and Farb. Unlike the pure braid group, the group of symmetries - the quotient of the braid group by the level 4 subg…
We investigate the filling area conjecture, optimal systolic inequalities, and the related problem of the nonvanishing of certain linking numbers in 3-manifolds.
We prove that the mod $2$ Betti numbers of double coverings of a complex hyperplane arrangement complement are combinatorially determined. The proof is based on a relation between the mod $2$ Aomoto complex and the transfer long exact sequence. Applying the above result to the icosidodecahedral arrangement ($16$ planes in the three dimensional space related to the icosidodecahedron), we conclude that the first homology of the Milnor fiber has non-trivial $2$-torsion.
