Real trees in topology, geometry, and group theory

Grothendieck's Reconstruction Principle and 2-dimensional Topology and Geometry

This paper attempts to relate some ideas of Grothendieck in his Esquisse d'un programme and some of the recent results on 2-dimensional topology and geometry. Especially, we shall discuss the Teichmüller theory, the mapping class groups, $SL(2, \bold C)$ representation variety of surface groups, and Thurston's theory of measured laminations.

The work of Tom Farrell and Lowell Jones in topology and geometry

This is a survey of some of the work of Tom Farrell and Lowell Jones. This is the lead article of a special issue of the Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly. This issue is published in conjunction with the conference "Geometry,Topology, and their Interactions" held in Morelia, Mexico.

Topology of spaces of knots in dimension 3

This paper is a computation of the homotopy type of K, the space of long knots in R^3, the same space of knots studied by Vassiliev via singularity theory. Each component of K corresponds to an isotopy class of long knot, and we `enumerate' the components via the companionship trees associated to the knot. The knots with the simplest companionship trees are: the unknot, torus knots, and hyperbolic knots. The homotopy-type of these components of K were computed by Hatcher. In the case the companionship tree has height, we give a fibre-bundle description of those components of K, recursively, in…

A glimpse into the differential topology and geometry of optimal transport

This note exposes the differential topology and geometry underlying some of the basic phenomena of optimal transportation. It surveys basic questions concerning Monge maps and Kantorovich measures: existence and regularity of the former, uniqueness of the latter, and estimates for the dimension of its support, as well as the associated linear programming duality. It shows the answers to these questions concern the differential geometry and topology of the chosen transportation cost. It also establishes new connections --- some heuristic and others rigorous --- based on the properties of the cr…

Geometry and Topology of Random 2-complexes

We study random 2-dimensional complexes in the Linial - Meshulam model and find torsion in their fundamental groups at various regimes. We find a simple algorithmically testable criterion for a subcomplex of a random 2-complex to be aspherical; this implies that any aspherical subcomplex of a random 2-complex satisfies the Whitehead conjecture. We use inequalities for Cheeger constants and systoles of simplicial surfaces to analyse spheres and projective planes lying in random 2-complexes. Our proofs exploit the strong hyperbolicity property of random 2-complexes.

三维 Anosov 流的辛几何与双接触拓扑

Symplectic Geometry of Anosov Flows in Dimension 3 and Bi-Contact Topology

本文从接触与辛几何角度刻画三维 Anosov 流，建立研究其动力学的几何拓扑框架，并给出双接触结构唯一性及基于 Reeb 流的 Anosov 性判据。

On Geometry and Topology of 4-Orbifolds

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.

Geometry and Topology of String Junctions

We study elliptic fibrations by analyzing suitable deformations of the fibrations and vanishing cycles. We introduce geometric string junctions and describe some of their properties. We show how the structure of the geometric string junctions is naturally related to the Lie algebra structures of the associated singularities. One application in physics is in F-theory, where our novel approach connecting deformations and Lie algebras describes the structure of generalized type IIB seven-branes and string junction states which end on them.

Dynamic Asymptotic Dimension: relation to dynamics, topology, coarse geometry, and $C^*$-algebras

We introduce dynamic asymptotic dimension, a notion of dimension for actions of discrete groups on locally compact spaces, and more generally for locally compact étale groupoids. We study our notion for minimal actions of the integer group, its relation with conditions used by Bartels, Lück, and Reich in the context of controlled topology, and its connections with Gromov's theory of asymptotic dimension. We also show that dynamic asymptotic dimension gives bounds on the nuclear dimension of Winter and Zacharias for C*-algebras associated to dynamical systems. Dynamic asymptotic dimension also …

Algorithmic Semi-algebraic Geometry and Topology -- Recent Progress and Open Problems

We give a survey of algorithms for computing topological invariants of semi-algebraic sets with special emphasis on the more recent developments in designing algorithms for computing the Betti numbers of semi-algebraic sets. Aside from describing these results, we discuss briefly the background as well as the importance of these problems, and also describe the main tools from algorithmic semi-algebraic geometry, as well as algebraic topology, which make these advances possible. We end with a list of open problems.