In this paper, we prove that each injective simplicial map of the arc complex of a compact, connected, orientable surface with nonempty boundary is induced by a homeomorphism of the surface. We deduce, from this result, that the group of automorphisms of the arc complex is naturally isomorphic to the extended mapping class group of the surface, provided the surface is not a disc, an annulus, a pair of pants, or a torus with one hole. We also show, for each of these special exceptions, that the group of automorphisms of the arc complex is naturally isomorphic to the quotient of the extended mapping class group of the surface by its center.
We prove that, except in some low-complexity cases, every locally injective simplicial map between pants graphs is induced by a $π_1$-injective embedding between the corresponding surfaces.
Let $S$ be a closed, connected, orientable surface of genus at least 3, $\mathcal{C}(S)$ be the complex of curves on $S$ and $Mod_S^*$ be the extended mapping class group of $S$. We prove that a simplicial map, $λ: \mathcal{C}(S) \to \mathcal{C}(S)$, preserves nondisjointness (i.e. if $α$ and $β$ are two vertices in $\mathcal{C}(S)$ and $i(α, β) \neq 0$, then $i(λ(α), λ(β)) \neq 0$) iff it is induced by a homeomorphism of $S$. As a corollary, we prove that if $K$ is a finite index subgroup of $Mod_S^*$ and $f: K \to Mod_S^*$ is an injective homomorphism, then $f$ is induced by a homeomorphism …
We prove that each injective simplicial map from the arc complex of a compact, connected, nonorientable surface with nonempty boundary to itself is induced by a homeomorphism of the surface. We also prove that the automorphism group of the arc complex is isomorphic to the quotient of the mapping class group of the surface by its center.
Let $N$ be a compact, connected, nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components, and $\mathcal{C}(N)$ be the complex of curves of $N$. Suppose that $g + n \leq 3$ or $g + n \geq 5$. If $λ: \mathcal{C}(N) \rightarrow \mathcal{C}(N)$ is an injective simplicial map, then $λ$ is induced by a homeomorphism of $N$.
Let R be a compact, connected, orientable surface of genus g with p boundary components. Let C(R) be the complex of curves on R and Mod_R^* be the extended mapping class group of R. Suppose that either g = 2 and p > 1 or g > 2 and p >= 0. We prove that a simplicial map lambda from C(R) to C(R) is superinjective if and only if it is induced by a homeomorphism of R. As a corollary, we prove that if K is a finite index subgroup of Mod_R^* and f is an injective homomorphism from K to Mod_R^*, then f is induced by a homeomorphism of R and f has a unique extension to an automorphism of Mod_R^*. This…
We prove that every injective simplicial map $\mathcal{F}(S) \to \mathcal{F}(S')$ between flip graphs is induced by a subsurface inclusion $S\to S'$, except in finitely many cases. This extends a result of Korkmaz--Papadopoulos which asserts that every automorphism of the flip graph of a surface without boundary is induced by a surface homeomorphism.
We study some graphs associated to a surface, called k-multicurve graphs, which interpolate between the curve complex and the pants graph. Our main result is that, under certain conditions, simplicial embeddings between multicurve graphs are induced by $π_1$-injective embeddings of the corresponding surfaces. We also prove the rigidity of the multicurve graphs.
In this paper, we investigate a family of graphs associated to collections of arcs on surfaces. These {\it multiarc graphs} naturally interpolate between arc graphs and flip graphs, both well studied objects in low dimensional geometry and topology. We show a number of rigidity results, namely showing that, under certain complexity conditions, that simplicial maps between them only arise in the "obvious way". We also observe that, again under necessary complexity conditions, subsurface strata are convex. Put together, these results imply that certain simplicial maps always give rise to convex …
A rigid set in a curve complex of a surface is a subcomplex such that every locally injective simplicial map from the set into the curve complex is induced by a homeomorphism of the surface. In this paper, we find finite rigid sets in the curve complexes of connected non-orientable surfaces of genus $g$ with $n$ holes for $g+n \neq 4$.
A subcomplex $X\leq \mathcal{C}$ of a simplicial complex is strongly rigid if every locally injective, simplicial map $X\to\mathcal{C}$ is the restriction of a unique automorphism of $\mathcal{C}$. Aramayona and the second author proved that the curve complex of an orientable surface can be exhausted by finite strongly rigid sets. The Hatcher sphere complex is an analog of the curve complex for isotopy classes of essential spheres in a connect sum of $n$ copies of $S^1\times S^2$. We show that there is an exhaustion of the sphere complex by finite strongly rigid sets for all $n\ge 3$ and that …
The complex of domains $D(S)$ is a geometric tool with a very rich simplicial structure, it contains the curve complex $C(S)$ as a simplicial subcomplex. In this paper we shall regard it as a metric space, endowed with the metric which makes each simplex Euclidean with edges of length 1, and we shall discuss its coarse geometry. We prove that for every subcomplex $Δ(S)$ of $D(S)$ which contains the curve complex $C(S)$, the natural simplicial inclusion $C(S) \to Δ(S)$ is an isometric embedding and a quasi-isometry. We prove that, except a few cases, the arc complex $A(S)$ is quasi-isometric to…
For any compact, connected, orientable, finite-type surface with marked points other than the sphere with three marked points, we construct a finite rigid set of its arc complex: a finite simplicial subcomplex of its arc complex such that any locally injective map of this set into the arc complex of another surface with arc complex of the same or lower dimension is induced by a homeomorphism of the surfaces, unique up to isotopy in most cases. It follows that if the arc complexes of two surfaces are isomorphic, the surfaces are homeomorphic. We also give an exhaustion of the arc complex by fin…
Let $R$ be a compact, connected, orientable surface of genus $g$, $Mod_R^*$ be the extended mapping class group of $R$, $\mathcal{C}(R)$ be the complex of curves on $R$, and $\mathcal{N}(R)$ be the complex of nonseparating curves on $R$. We prove that if $g \geq 2$ and $R$ has at most $g-1$ boundary components, then a simplicial map $λ: \mathcal{N}(R) \to \mathcal{N}(R)$ is superinjective if and only if it is induced by a homeomorphism of $R$. We prove that if $g \geq 2$ and $R$ is not a closed surface of genus two then $Aut(\mathcal{N}(R))= Mod_R^*$, and if $R$ is a closed surface of genus tw…
We study the connections between subsurface projections in curve and arc complexes in fibered 3-manifolds and Agol's veering triangulation. The main theme is that large-distance subsurfaces in fibers are associated to large simplicial regions in the veering triangulation, and this correspondence holds uniformly for all fibers in a given fibered face of the Thurston norm.
We study the arc complex of a surface with marked points in the interior and on the boundary. We prove that the isomorphism type of the arc complex determines the topology of the underlying surface, and that in all but a few cases every automorphism is induced by a homeomorphism of the surface. As an application we deduce some rigidity results for the Fomin-Shapiro-Thurston cluster algebra associated to such a surface. Our proofs do not employ any known simplicial rigidity result.
In this article, we construct a new simplicial complex for infinite-type surfaces, which we call the grand arc graph. We show that if the end space of a surface has at least three different self-similar equivalence classes of maximal ends, then the grand arc graph is infinite-diameter and $δ$-hyperbolic. In this case, we also show that the mapping class group acts on the grand arc graph by isometries and acts on the visible boundary continuously. When the surface has stable maximal ends, we also show that this action has finitely many orbits.
Gordian complex of knots was defined by Hirasawa and Uchida as the simplicial complex whose vertices are knot isotopy classes in $\mathbb{S}^3$. Later Horiuchi and Ohyama defined Gordian complex of virtual knots using $v$-move and forbidden moves. In this paper we discuss Gordian complex of knots by region crossing change and Gordian complex of virtual knots by arc shift move. Arc shift move is a local move in the virtual knot diagram which results in reversing orientation locally between two consecutive crossings. We show the existence of an arbitrarily high dimensional simplex in both the Go…
Addressing a question of Zaremsky, we give conditions on a finite simplicial graph which guarantee that the associated matching arc complex is connected and hyperbolic.
We study the {\it arc and curve} complex $AC(S)$ of an oriented connected surface $S$ of finite type with punctures. We show that if the surface is not a sphere with one, two or three punctures nor a torus with one puncture, then the simplicial automorphism group of $AC(S)$ coincides with the natural image of the extended mapping class group of $S$ in that group. We also show that for any vertex of $AC(S)$, the combinatorial structure of the link of that vertex characterizes the type of a curve or of an arc in $S$ that represents that vertex. We also give a proof of the fact if $S$ is not a sp…
Shellability of a simplicial complex has many useful structural implications. In particular, it was shown by Danaraj and Klee that every shellable pseudo-manifold is a PL-sphere. The purpose of this paper is to prove the shellability of the quasi-arc complex of the Möbius strip. Along the way we provide elementary proofs of the shellability of the arc complex of the $n$-gon and the cylinder. In turn, applying the result of Danaraj and Klee, we obtain the sphericity of all of these complexes.
A classical combinatorial fact is that the simplicial complex consisting of disjointly embedded chords in a convex planar polygon is a sphere. For any surface F with non-empty boundary, there is an analogous complex Arc(F) consisting of suitable equivalence classes of arcs in F connecting its boundary components. The main result of this paper is the determination of those arc complexes Arc(F) that are also spherical. This classification has consequences for Riemann's moduli space via its known identification with an analogous arc complex in the punctured case with no boundary. Namely, the esse…
For a half-translation surface (S,q), the associated saddle connection complex A(S,q) is the simplicial complex where vertices are the saddle connections on (S,q), with simplices spanned by sets of pairwise disjoint saddle connections. This complex can be naturally regarded as an induced subcomplex of the arc complex. We prove that any simplicial isomorphism $ϕ: A(S,q) \to A(S',q')$ between saddle connection complexes is induced by an affine diffeomorphism $F : (S,q) \to (S',q')$. In particular, this shows that the saddle connection complex is a complete invariant of affine equivalence classes…
Homological stability for sequences of groups is often proved by studying the spectral sequence associated to the action of a typical group in the sequence on a highly-connected simplicial complex whose stabilizers are related to previous groups in the sequence. In the case of mapping class groups of manifolds, suitable simplicial complexes can be made using isotopy classes of various geometric objects in the manifold. In this paper we focus on the case of surfaces and show that by using more refined geometric objects consisting of certain configurations of curves with arcs that tether these c…
There are well-known monomorphisms between the Artin groups of finite type $\arA_n$, $\arB_n=\arC_n$ and affine type $\tilde \arA_{n-1}$, $\tilde\arC_{n-1}$. The Artin group $A(\arA_n)$ is isomorphic to the $(n+1)$-strand braid group $B_{n+1}$, and the other three Artin groups are isomorphic to some subgroups of $B_{n+1}$. The inclusions between these subgroups yield monomorphisms $A(\arB_n)\to A(\arA_n)$, $A(\tilde \arA_{n-1})\to A(\arB_n)$ and $A(\tilde \arC_{n-1})\to A(\arB_n)$. There are another type of monomorphisms $A(\arB_d)\to A(\arA_{md-1})$, $A(\arB_d)\to A(\arB_{md})$ and $A(\arB_d)…
