Let F a closed connected orientable surface bounding a genus g handlebody H. In this paper we find a finite set of generators for the subgroup E(2,g) of the pure mapping class group of the twice punctured torus PMCG(2,g), consisting of the isotopy classes of homeomorphisms of F which admit an extension to H keeping a properly embedded trivial arc fixed. This subgroup turns out to be important for the study of knots in closed 3-manifolds via (g,1)-decomposition. In fact, the knots represented by the isotopy classes belonging to the same left cosets of E(2,g) in PMCG(2,g) are equivalent.
The main results of the paper is that we give a characteristics for an annulus sum and a once-punctured torus sum of two handlebodies to be a handlebody as follows: 1. The annulus sum $H=H_1\cup_A H_2$ of two handlebodies $H_1$ and $H_2$ is a handlebody if and only if the core curve of $A$ is a longitude for either $H_1$ or $H_2$. 2. Let $H=H_1\cup_T H_2$ be a surface sum of two handlebodies $H_1$ and $H_2$ along a once-punctured torus $T$. Suppose that $T$ is incompressible in both $H_1$ and $H_2$. Then $H$ is a handlebody if and only if the there exists a collection $\{δ, σ\}$ of simple clos…
We consider knots and links in handlebodies that have hyperbolic complements and operations akin to composition. Cutting the complements of two such open along separating twice-punctured disks such that each of the four resulting handlebodies has positive genus, and gluing a pair of pieces together along the twice-punctured disks in their boundaries, we show the result is also hyperbolic. This should be contrasted with composition of any pair of knots in the 3-sphere, which is never hyperbolic. Similar results are obtained when both twice-punctured disks are in the same handlebody and we glue …
Let $\textup{H}_g$ be a genus $g$ handlebody and $\textup{MCG}_{2n}(\textup{T}_g)$ be the group of the isotopy classes of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of $\textup{T}_g=\partial\textup{H}_g$, fixing a given set of $2n$ points. In this paper we find a finite set of generators for $\mathcal{E}_{2n}^g$, the subgroup of $\textup{MCG}_{2n}(\textup{T}_g)$ consisting of the isotopy classes of homeomorphisms of $\textup{T}_g$ admitting an extension to the handlebody and keeping fixed the union of $n$ disjoint properly embedded trivial arcs. This result generalizes a previous one obtained by th…
We classify right-veering homeomorphisms of the once-punctured torus using the Burau representation of the 3-strand braid group. We show that reducible and periodic mapping classes in B_3 can be identified as right-veering by consideration of the reduced version of the Burau representation. Given any element beta in B_3, we give a method to quickly determine its action on the generators of the fundamental group of the 3-times punctured disk. This action which determines whether beta is right-veering, left-veering, or neither.
The mapping class group $MCG(Σ_g)$ of a surface of genus $g$ has a long-history in topology and group theory. More recently, the mapping class group $MCG(V_g)$ of a handlebody $V_g$ of genus $g$ has become an interesting topic in the study of $3$ manifolds, largely thanks to Heegaard splitting. While $MCG(V_g)$ can be regarded naturally as a sub group of $MCG(Σ_g)$, we could not find any complete proof of this fundamental theorem. It is the purpose of this paper that we give a rigorous proof of embedding of $MCG(V_g)$ into $MCG(V_g)$. The key step is: Any self-homeomorphism $f$ of handlebody $…
For a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $f$ on a closed surface of genus $g\geq 2$, for which the entropy is on the order $\frac{1}{g}$ (the lowest possible order), Farb-Leininger-Margalit showed that the volume of the mapping torus is bounded, independent of $g$. We show that the analogous result fails for a surface of fixed genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, by constructing pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism with entropy of the minimal order $\frac{\log n}{n}$, and volume tending to infinity.
Wolf gave a homeomorphism from the Teichmüller space to the space of quadratic differentials on a closed Riemann surface by using harmonic maps. Moreover, using harmonic maps rays, he gave a compactification of the Teichmüller space and show that it coincides with the Thurston compactification. In this paper, we extend the harmonic maps compactification to the Teichmüller spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces, and show that it still coincides with the Thurston compactification.
The main theorem of this paper generalizes recent results in Dehn surgery to the case of handlebody attachment. We consider attaching handlebodies and solid tori to the boundary of an irreducible, boundary-irreducible, atoroidal and acylindrical 3-manifold. We show that for a large class of homeomorphisms attaching these handlebodies, the fundamental group of the resulting manifold contains the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus at least two.
Previous work of the author has developed coordinates on bundles over the classical Teichmueller spaces of punctured surfaces and on the space of cosets of the Moebius group in the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of the circle, and this work is surveyed here. Joint work with Dragomir Saric is also sketched which extends these results to the setting of the Teichmueller space of the solenoid of a punctured surface, which is defined here in analogy to Dennis Sullivan's original definition for the case of closed surfaces. Because of relations with the classical modular group, the pu…
Suppose M is a noncompact connected PL 2-manifold and let H(M)_0 denote the identity component of the homeomorphism group of M with the compact-open topology. In this paper we classify the homotopy type of H(M)_0 by showing that {\cal H}(M)_0 has the homotopy type of the circle if M is the plane, an open or half open annulus, or the punctured projective plane. In all other cases we show that H(M)_0 is homotopically trivial.
Let B_n be the braid group on n > 3 strands. We prove that B_n modulo its center is co-Hopfian. We then show that any injective endomorphism of B_n is geometric in the sense that it is induced by a homeomorphism of a punctured disk. We further prove that any injection from B_n to B_n+1 is geometric. Additionally, we obtain analogous results for mapping class groups of punctured spheres. The methods use Thurston's theory of surface homeomorphisms and build upon work of Ivanov and McCarthy.
Bestvina and Handel have found an effective algorithm that determines whether a given homeomorphism of an orientable, possibly punctured surface is pseudo-Anosov. We present a software package in Java that realizes this algorithm for surfaces with one puncture. Moreover, the package allows the user to define homeomorphisms in terms of Dehn twists, and in the pseudo-Anosov case it generates images of train tracks in the sense of Bestvina-Handel.
This paper extends the decorated Teichmüller theory developed before for punctured surfaces to the setting of ``bordered'' surfaces, i.e., surfaces with boundary, and there is non-trivial new structure discovered. The main new result identifies the arc complex of a bordered surface up to proper homotopy equivalence with a certain quotient of the moduli space, namely, the quotient by the natural action of the positive reals by homothety on the hyperbolic lengths of geodesic boundary components. One tool in the proof is a homeomorphism between two versions of a ``decorated'' moduli space for bor…
A meromorphic projective structure on a punctured Riemann surface $X\setminus P$ is determined, after fixing a standard projective structure on $X$, by a meromorphic quadratic differential with poles of order three or more at each puncture in $P$. In this article we prove the analogue of Thurston's grafting theorem for such meromorphic projective structures, that involves grafting crowned hyperbolic surfaces. This also provides a grafting description for projective structures on $\mathbb{C}$ that have polynomial Schwarzian derivatives. As an application of our main result, we prove the analogu…
This article presents the constructions of new infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic and, from their construction, seem to be quite different, but cannot be distinguished by Seiberg-Witten invariants. Whether these manifolds are, or are not, actually diffeomorphic seems to be a very difficult question to answer. The most interesting of these constructions is a surgery that from certain symplectic 4-manifolds will produce nonsymplectic 4-manifolds. This is detected by calculations of Seiberg-Witten invariants. The su…
For a given $ε>0$, we show that there exist two finite index subgroups of $PSL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ which are $(1+ε)$-quasisymmetrically conjugated and the conjugation homeomorphism is not conformal. This implies that for any $ε>0$ there are two finite regular covers of the Modular once punctured torus $T_0$ (or just the Modular torus) and a $(1+ε)$-quasiconformal between them that is not homotopic to a conformal map. As an application of the above results, we show that the orbit of the basepoint in the Teichmüller space $T(§)$ of the punctured solenoid $§$ under the action of the corresponding Modu…
In every connected component of every stratum of Abelian differentials, we construct square-tiled surfaces with one vertical and one horizontal cylinder. We show that for all but the hyperelliptic components this can be achieved in the minimum number of squares necessary for a square-tiled surface in that stratum. For the hyperelliptic components, we show that the number of squares required is strictly greater and construct surfaces realising these bounds. Using these surfaces, we demonstrate that pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms optimising the ratio of Teichmüller to curve graph translation lengt…
We investigate the following problem: Given two embeddings G_1 and G_2 of the same abstract graph G on an orientable surface S, decide whether G_1 and G_2 are isotopic; in other words, whether there exists a continuous family of embeddings between G_1 and G_2. We provide efficient algorithms to solve this problem in two models. In the first model, the input consists of the arrangement of G_1 (resp., G_2) with a fixed graph cellularly embedded on S; our algorithm is linear in the input complexity, and thus, optimal. In the second model, G_1 and G_2 are piecewise-linear embeddings in the plane m…
