Let F be a closed surface and i:F \to S^3 a generic immersions. Then S^3 - i(F) is a union of connected regions, which may be separated into two sets {U_j} and {V_j} by a checkerboard coloring. For k \geq 0, let a_k, b_k be the number of components U_j, V_j with χ(U_j) = 1-k, χ(V_j)=1-k, respectively. Two more integers attached to i are the number N of triple points of i, and χ=χ(F). In this work we determine what sets of data ({a_k}, {b_k}, χ, N) may appear in this way.
We study finite order invariants of null-homotopic immersions of a closed orientable surface into an aspherical orientable 3-manifold. We give the foundational constructions, and classify all order one invariants.
We classify all finite order invariants of immersions of a closed orientable surface into R^3, with values in any Abelian group. We show that they are all functions of order one invariants.
Some properties of non-orientable 3-manifolds are shown. The semi-group of cobordism of immersions of surfaces in such manifolds is computed and proven actually to be a group. Explicit invariants are provided.
This paper is to study the $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ case of \hyperref[Zhao]{[9]}. We determine all equivalence classes of immersed $3$-manifolds bounded by an arbitrary immersed surface in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$.
We present and apply a method for disproving the existence of polyhedral immersions in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of certain triangulations on non-orientable surfaces. In particular, it is proved that neither of the two vertex-minimal, neighborly 9-vertex triangulations of the non-orientable surface of genus 5 are realizable as immersed polyhedral surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
In this note, we investigate the relation between double points and complex points of immersed surfaces in almost-complex 4-manifolds and show how estimates for the minimal genus of embedded surfaces lead to inequalities between the number of double points and the number of complex points of an immersion. We also provide a generalization of a classical genus estimate due to V.A. Rokhlin to the case of immersed surfaces.
S. Blank solved the question of classifying immersed circles in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ that extend to immersed disks, and how many topologically inequivalent disks can be extended. The quetions of various cases in $2$-dimension have already been solved by generalizing his method. In this paper, we give a new way, which is straightforward for the questions, and we determine all topological equivalence classes of immersed surfaces bounded by an arbitrary immersed circle in a closed oriented surface.
The universal order 1 invariant f^U of immersions of a closed orientable surface into R^3, whose existence has been established in [N3], takes values in the group G_U = K \oplus Z/2 \oplus Z/2 where K is a countably generated free Abelian group. The projections of f^U to K and to the first and second Z/2 factors are denoted f^K, M, Q respectively. An explicit formula for the value of Q on any embedding has been given in [N2]. In the present work we give an explicit formula for the value of f^K on any immersion, and for the value of M on any embedding.
A self-transverse immersion of a smooth manifold M^{k+2} in R^{2k+2} has a double point self-intersection set which is the image of an immersion of a smooth surface, the double point self-intersection surface. We prove that this surface may have odd Euler characteristic if and only if k is congruent to 1 modulo 4 or k+1 is a power of 2. This corrects a previously published result by Andras Szucs. The method of proof is to evaluate the Stiefel-Whitney numbers of the double point self-intersection surface. By earier work of the authors these numbers can be read off from the Hurewicz image h(α) i…
The self intersection of an immersion i : S^2 \to R^3 dissects S^2 into pieces which are planar surfaces (unless i is an embedding). In this work we determine what collections of planar surfaces may be obtained in this way. In particular, for every n we construct an immersion i : S^2 \to R^3 with 2n triple points, for which all pieces are discs.
Given a surface F, we are interested in Z/2 valued invariants of immersions of F into R^3, which are constant on each connected component of the complement of the quadruple point discriminant in Imm(F,R^3). Such invariants will be called ``q-invariants.'' Given a regular homotopy class A in Imm(F,R^3), we denote by V_n(A) the space of all q-invariants on A of order <= n. We show that if F is orientable, then for each regular homotopy class A and each n, dim(V_n(A) / V_{n-1}(A)) <= 1.
Let F be a closed non-orientable surface. We classify all finite order invariants of immersions of F into R^3, with values in any Abelian group. We show they are all functions of the universal order 1 invariant that we construct as T \oplus P \oplus Q where T is a Z valued invariant reflecting the number of triple points of the immersion, and P,Q are Z/2 valued invariants characterized by the property that for any regularly homotopic immersions i,j:F\to R^3, P(i)-P(j) \in Z/2 (respectively Q(i)-Q(j) \in Z/2) is the number mod 2 of tangency points (respectively quadruple points) occurring in an…
We classify all order one invariants of immersions of a closed orientable surface F into R^3, with values in an arbitrary Abelian group G. We show that for any F and G and any regular homotopy class A of immersions of F into R^3, the group of all order one invariants on A is isomorphic to G^\aleph_0 \oplus B \oplus B where G^\aleph_0 is the group of all functions from a set of cardinality \aleph_0 into G and B={x\in G : 2x=0}. Our work includes foundations for the study of finite order invariants of immersions of a closed orientable surface into R^3, analogous to chord diagrams and the 1-term …
We classify immersions $f$ of $S^1$ in a $2$-manifold $M$ in terms of elementary invariants: the parity $S(f)$ of the number of double points of a self-transverse $C^1$-approximation of $f$, and the turning number $T(e\bar f)$ of the immersion $e\bar f:S^1\to M_f\subset\Bbb R^2$, where $\bar f$ is a lift of $f$ to the cover $M_f$ of $M$ corresponding to the subgroup $\left<[f]\right>\subsetπ_1(M)$. Namely, immersions $f,g:S^1\to M$ are regular homotopic if and only if they are homotopic, and if $M=S^2$ or $\Bbb R P^2$ or the normal bundle $ν(f)$ is non-orientable, then $S(f)=S(g)$, whereas if …
A theory of transversely oriented spun-normal immersed surfaces in ideally triangulated 3--manifolds is developed in this paper, including linear functionals determining the boundary curves, Euler characteristic and homology class of these immersions. This is used to develop and implement an algorithm to compute the unit ball of the Thurston norm for cusped hyperbolic 3--manifolds of finite volume. As an application of independent interest, we give an upper bound on the minimal entropy of pseudo-Anosov maps of surfaces with number of cusps bounded linearly in genus.
We study minimal immersions of closed surfaces (of genus $g \ge 2$) in hyperbolic 3-manifolds, with prescribed data $(σ, tα)$, where $σ$ is a conformal structure on a topological surface $S$, and $αdz^2$ is a holomorphic quadratic differential on the surface $(S,σ)$. We show that, for each $t \in (0,τ_0)$ for some $τ_0 > 0$, depending only on $(σ, α)$, there are at least two minimal immersions of closed surface of prescribed second fundamental form $Re(tα)$ in the conformal structure $σ$. Moreover, for $t$ sufficiently large, there exists no such minimal immersion. Asymptotically, as $t \to 0$…
We approach the study of totally real immersions of smooth manifolds into holomorphic Riemannian space forms of constant sectional curvature -1. We introduce a notion of first and second fundamental form, we prove that they satisfy a similar version of the classic Gauss-Codazzi equations, and conversely that solutions of Gauss-Codazzi equations are immersion data of some equivariant map. This study has some interesting geometric consequences: 1) it provides a formalism to study immersions of surfaces into SL(2,C) and into the space of geodesics of H^3; 2) it generalizes the classical theory of…
Let $S$ be a closed surface of genus at least $2$. For each maximal representation $ρ: π_1(S)\rightarrow\mathsf{Sp}(4,\mathbb{R})$ in one of the $2g-3$ exceptional connected components, we prove there is a unique conformal structure on the surface in which the corresponding equivariant harmonic map to the symmetric space $\mathsf{Sp}(4,\mathbb{R})/\mathsf{U}(2)$ is a minimal immersion. Using a Higgs bundle parameterization of these components, we give a mapping class group invariant parameterization of such components as fiber bundles over Teichmüller space. Unlike Labourie's recent results on…
We construct two infinite sequences of immersions of the 3-sphere into 4-space, parameterized by the Dynkin diagrams of types A and D. The construction is based on immersions of 4-manifolds obtained as the plumbed immersions along the weighted Dynkin diagrams. We compute their Smale invariants and bordism classes of immersions by using Ekholm-Takase's formula in terms of singular Seifert surfaces. In order to construct singular Seifert surfaces for the immersions, we use the Kirby calculus.
This thesis mainly treats two developments of the classical theory of hypersurfaces inside pseudo-Riemannian space forms. The former - a joint work with Francesco Bonsante - consists in the study of immersions of smooth manifolds into holomorphic Riemannian space forms of constant curvature -1 (including SL(2,C) with a multiple of its Killing form): this leads to a Gauss-Codazzi theorem, it suggests an approach to holomorphic transitioning of immersions into pseudo-Riemannian space forms, a trick to construct holomorphic maps into the PSL(2,C)-character variety, and leads to a restatement of B…
A self-transverse immersion of the 2-sphere into 4-space with algebraic number of self intersection points equal to -n induces an immersion of the circle bundle over the 2-sphere of Euler class 2n into 4-space. Precomposing the circle bundle immersions with their universal covering maps, we get for n>0 immersions g_n of the 3-sphere into 4-space. In this note, we compute the Smale invariants of g_n. The computation is carried out by (partially) resolving the singularities of the natural singular map of the punctured complex projective plane which extends g_n. As an application, we determine th…
Exploiting a relationship between closed geodesics on a generic closed hyperbolic surface S and a certain unipotent flow on the product space T_1(S) x T_1(S), we obtain a local asymptotic equidistribution result for long closed geodesics on S. Applications include asymptotic estimates for the number of pants immersions into S satisfying various geometric constraints. Also we show that two uniformly random closed geodesics gamma_1, gamma_2 of length within epsilon of L have a high probability of partially bounding an immersed 4-holed sphere whose other boundary components also have length withi…
This article presents an improvement and extension of the heuristic first presented by Hougardy, Lutz, and Zelke in 2010 for realizing triangulated orientable surfaces with few vertices by a simplex-wise linear embedding. The improvement consists in the applicability to non-orientable surfaces (simplex-wise linear immersions) as well as symmetric realizations. With the help of our algorithm, numerous - often symmetric - realizations of non-orientable surfaces with the minimal number or few vertices have been obtained for the first time. These examples include the the Projective Plane with one …
A translation structure on a surface is an atlas of charts to the plane so that the transition functions are translations. We allow our surfaces to be non-compact and infinite genus. We endow the space of all pointed surfaces equipped with a translation structure with a topology, which we call the immersive topology because it is related to the manner in which disks can be immersed into such a surface. We prove that a number of operations typically done to translation surfaces are continuous with respect to the topology. We show that the topology is Hausdorff, and that the collection of surfac…
Branch points of a real 2-surface S in a 4-manifold M generalize the branch points of complex curves in complex surfaces: for example, they can occur as singularities of minimal surfaces. We investigate such a branch point p when S is topologically embedded in M. It defines a link L(p), the components of which are closed braids with the same axis up to orientation. If S is closed without boundary, the contribution of p to the degree of the normal bundle of S in M can be computed on the link L(p) in terms of the algebraic crossing numbers of its components and on their linking numbers one with …
In 1992, Hitchin used his theory of Higgs bundles to construct an important family of representations of the fundamental group of a closed, oriented surface of genus at least two into the split real form of a complex adjoint simple Lie group. These Hitchin representations comprise a component of the space of conjugacy classes of all such representations and are deformations of the irreducible Fuchsian representations which uniformize the surface. For any choice of marked complex structure on the surface and any Hitchin representation, we show that the corresponding equivariant harmonic map fro…
Let $(S,h)$ be a closed hyperbolic surface and $M$ be a quasi-Fuchsian 3-manifold. We consider incompressible maps from $S$ to $M$ that are critical points of an energy functional $F$ which is homogeneous of degree $1$. These "minimizing" maps are solutions of a non-linear elliptic equation, and reminiscent of harmonic maps -- but when the target is Fuchsian, minimizing maps are minimal Lagrangian diffeomorphisms to the totally geodesic surface in $M$. We prove the uniqueness of smooth minimizing maps from $(S,h)$ to $M$ in a given homotopy class. When $(S,h)$ is fixed, smooth minimizing maps …
Recently V. Arnold introduced Strangeness and $J^{\pm}$ invariants of generic immersions of an oriented circle to $\R^2$. Here these invariants are generalized to the case of generic immersions of an oriented circle to an arbitrary surface $F$. We explicitly describe all the invariants satisfying axioms, which naturally generalize the axioms used by V. Arnold.
We study the problem of rigidity of closures of totally geodesic plane immersions in geometrically finite manifolds containing rank $1$ cusps. We show that the key notion of K-thick recurrence of horocycles fails generically in this setting. This property was introduced in the recent work of McMullen, Mohammadi and Oh. Nonetheless, in the setting of geometrically finite groups whose limit sets are circle packings, we derive 2 density criteria for non-closed geodesic plane immersions, and show that closed immersions give rise to surfaces with finitely generated fundamental groups. We also obtai…
