The space of shapes of a polyhedron with given total angles less than 2πat each of its n vertices has a Kaehler metric, locally isometric to complex hyperbolic space CH^{n-3}. The metric is not complete: collisions between vertices take place a finite distance from a nonsingular point. The metric completion is a complex hyperbolic cone-manifold. In some interesting special cases, the metric completion is an orbifold. The concrete description of these spaces of shapes gives information about the combinatorial classification of triangulations of the sphere with no more than 6 triangles at a vertex.
We use a variational principle to prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for planar weighted Delaunay triangulations (with non-intersecting site-circles) with prescribed combinatorial type and circle intersection angles. Such weighted Delaunay triangulations may be interpreted as images of hyperbolic polyhedra with one vertex on and the remaining vertices beyond the infinite boundary of hyperbolic space. Thus the main theorem states necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of such polyhedra with prescribed combinatorial type and dihedral angles. More generally, w…
This paper deals with triangulations of the 2-torus with the vertex labeled general octahedral graph $O_4$ which is isomorphic to the complete four-partite graph $K_{2,2,2,2}$; it is known that there exist precisely twelve such triangulations. We find all the 12 triangulations in a Schlegel diagram of the hyperoctahedron and realize all of them geometrically with the same 1-skeleton in 3-space. In particular, we identify two geometric polyhedral tori (both without self-intersections) with the same 1-skeleton in 3-space, but without a single common face, or in other words their intersection (as…
In this paper we describe a procedure to simplify any given triangulation of the 3-sphere using Pachner moves. We obtain an explicit exponential-type bound on the number of Pachner moves needed for this process. This leads to a new recognition algorithm for the 3-sphere.
Every cusped, finite-volume hyperbolic three-manifold has a canonical decomposition into ideal polyhedra. We study the canonical decomposition of the hyperbolic manifold obtained by filling some (but not all) of the cusps with solid tori: in a broad range of cases, generic in an appropriate sense, this decomposition can be predicted from that of the unfilled manifold. As an example, we treat all hyperbolic fillings on one cusp of the Whitehead link complement.
It is known that the $3$-sphere has at most $2^{O(n^2 \log n)}$ combinatorially distinct triangulations with $n$ vertices. Here we construct at least $2^{Ω(n^2)}$ such triangulations.
Any hyperbolic surface bundle over the circle gives rise to a continuous surjection from the circle to the sphere, by work of Cannon and Thurston. We prove that the order in which this surjection fills out the sphere is dictated by a natural triangulation of the surface bundle (introduced by Agol) when all singularities of the invariant foliations are at punctures of the fiber.
In this paper we prove that any triangulation of a 2-dimensional sphere with a strict 4-coloring on its vertices can seen as the boundary of a triangulation of a 3-dimensional disk with the same vertices and preserving the 4-coloring.
Let $M$ be an $n$-vertex combinatorial triangulation of a $\ZZ_2$-homology $d$-sphere. In this paper we prove that if $n \leq d + 8$ then $M$ must be a combinatorial sphere. Further, if $n = d + 9$ and $M$ is not a combinatorial sphere then $M$ can not admit any proper bistellar move. Existence of a 12-vertex triangulation of the lens space $L(3, 1)$ shows that the first result is sharp in dimension three. In the course of the proof we also show that any $\ZZ_2$-acyclic simplicial complex on $\leq 7$ vertices is necessarily collapsible. This result is best possible since there exist 8-vertex t…
The paper is devoted to finding the colorings of the edges of the 1-skeleton of triangulations of the 2-sphere in three colors so that for each face all three of its sides have different colors. First, by the method of adding one vertex inside the triangle or on its side, we enumerate all tiangulations with no more than 8 vertices. Next, one triangulation with 6 and 7 vertices, each with two different colors, was found. And finally, it is shown that other triangulations, which have less than 8 vertices, have one coloring each.
In his paper "Shapes of Polyhedra and Triangulations of the Sphere", Thurston found that the set of shapes of convex polyhedra with prescribed cone-deficits has a complex hyperbolic structure. Inspired by his work, this paper studies the set of shapes of centrally symmetric octahedra with prescribed cone-deficits. We show that this set forms a real hyperbolic ideal tetrahedron, whose dihedral angles are half of the prescribed cone-deficits.
We show that for every convex polyhedral sphere $P$ in $S^3$, there exist two canonical, non-edge-to-edge tilings of $S^{2}$ whose tiles are given by all the faces of $P$ and the dual convex polyhedral sphere $P^*$ to $P$. Under the identifications of $S^{3}$ with the Lie group $SU(2)$, and of $S^{2}$ with the unit sphere in the Lie algebra $su(2)$ of $SU(2)$, our result is obtained by considering the set $\widetilde P$ of outward unit normal vectors to $P$ and the maps from $\widetilde P$ to $S^{2}$ defined by using the left and right Maurer-Cartan forms on $SU(2)$.
A triangulation of a $3$-manifold can be shown to be homeomorphic to the $3$-sphere by describing a discrete Morse function on it with only two critical faces, that is, a sequence of elementary collapses from the triangulation with one tetrahedron removed down to a single vertex. Unfortunately, deciding whether such a sequence exist is believed to be very difficult in general. In this article we present a method, based on uniform spanning trees, to estimate how difficult it is to collapse a given $3$-sphere triangulation after removing a tetrahedron. In addition we show that out of all $3$-sph…
We determine the minimum number of vertices needed to provide balanced triangulations of $\mathbb S^{d-2}$-bundles over $\mathbb S^1$. If $d$ is odd and the bundle is orientable, or $d$ is even and the bundle is non-orientable, the minimum number of vertices is $3d$; otherwise, it is $3d+2$. Similar results apply to all balanced simplicial complexes that triangulate homology manifolds with $β_1\neq 0$ and $β_2=0$, where $β_i$'s are the Betti numbers, computed with coefficients in $\mathbb Q$.
The main ob jective of this research is to find the different types of elliptic triangulations for planar discs and spheres. We begin in Chapter 1 with the mandatory introduction. In the second chapter we define and study the notion of a patch, that is, a triangulation of a planar disc. By introducing a suitable notion of degree for the vertex points, we focus on those patches with points of degrees less tah or equal to 6. Such patches are called el liptic. We show that the elliptic patches with precisely three points of degree four, denoted by (0, 3, 0), can be classified. The number of verte…
We prove that the number of combinatorially distinct causal 3-dimensional triangulations homeomorphic to the 3-dimensional sphere is bounded by an exponential function of the number of tetrahedra. It is also proven that the number of combinatorially distinct causal 4-dimensional triangulations homeomorphic to the 4-sphere is bounded by an exponential function of the number of 4-simplices provided the number of all combinatorially distinct triangulations of the 3-sphere is bounded by an exponential function of the number of tetrahedra.
It is important to have fast and effective methods for simplifying 3-manifold triangulations without losing any topological information. In theory this is difficult: we might need to make a triangulation super-exponentially more complex before we can make it smaller than its original size. Here we present experimental work suggesting that for 3-sphere triangulations the reality is far different: we never need to add more than two tetrahedra, and we never need more than a handful of local modifications. If true in general, these extremely surprising results would have significant implications f…
For integers $d \geq 2$ and $ε= 0$ or 1, let $S^{1, d - 1}(ε)$ denote the sphere product $S^{1} \times S^{d - 1}$ if $ε= 0$ and the twisted $S^{d - 1}$ bundle over $S^{1}$ if $ε= 1$. The main results of this paper are: (a) if $d \equiv ε$ (mod 2) then $S^{1, d - 1}(ε)$ has a unique minimal triangulation using $2d + 3$ vertices, and (b) if $d \equiv 1 - ε$ (mod 2) then $S^{1, d - 1}(ε)$ has minimal triangulations (not unique) using $2d + 4$ vertices. The second result confirms a recent conjecture of Lutz. The first result provides the first known infinite family of closed manifolds (other than …
It is conjectured that every cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold has a decomposition into positive volume ideal hyperbolic tetrahedra (a "geometric" triangulation of the manifold). Under a mild homology assumption on the manifold we construct topological ideal triangulations which admit a strict angle structure, which is a necessary condition for the triangulation to be geometric. In particular, every knot or link complement in the 3-sphere has such a triangulation. We also give an example of a triangulation without a strict angle structure, where the obstruction is related to the homology hypothesis…
We study convex polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^3$ with all their vertices on a sphere. We do not require, in particular, that the polyhedra lie in the interior of the sphere, hence the term "weakly inscribed". Such polyhedra can be interpreted as ideal polyhedra, if we regard $\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^3$ as a combination of the hyperbolic space and the de Sitter space, with the sphere as the common ideal boundary. We have three main results: (1) the $1$-skeleta of weakly inscribed polyhedra are characterized in a purely combinatorial way, (2) the exterior dihedral angles are characterized by l…
We study lower bounds for the number of vertices in a PL-triangulation of a given manifold $M$. While most of the previous estimates are based on the dimension and the connectivity of $M$, we show that further information can be extracted by studying the structure of the fundamental group of $M$ and applying techniques from the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category theory. In particular, we prove that every PL-triangulation of a $d$-dimensional manifold ($d\ge 3$) whose fundamental group is not free has at least $3d+1$ vertices. As a corollary, every $d$-dimensional ($\mathbb{Z}_p$-)homology sphere …
We give a method for computing upper and lower bounds for the volume of a non-obtuse hyperbolic polyhedron in terms of the combinatorics of the 1-skeleton. We introduce an algorithm that detects the geometric decomposition of good 3-orbifolds with planar singular locus and underlying manifold the 3-sphere. The volume bounds follow from techniques related to the proof of Thurston's Orbifold Theorem, Schläfli's formula, and previous results of the author giving volume bounds for right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra.
We study convex polyhedra in three-space that are inscribed in a quadric surface. Up to projective transformations, there are three such surfaces: the sphere, the hyperboloid, and the cylinder. Our main result is that a planar graph $Γ$ is realized as the $1$-skeleton of a polyhedron inscribed in the hyperboloid or cylinder if and only if $Γ$ is realized as the $1$-skeleton of a polyhedron inscribed in the sphere and $Γ$ admits a Hamiltonian cycle. Rivin characterized convex polyhedra inscribed in the sphere by studying the geometry of ideal polyhedra in hyperbolic space. We study the case of …
For $d \geq 2$, Walkup's class ${\cal K}(d)$ consists of the $d$-dimensional simplicial complexes all whose vertex-links are stacked $(d-1)$-spheres. Kalai showed that for $d \geq 4$, all connected members of ${\cal K}(d)$ are obtained from stacked $d$-spheres by finitely many elementary handle additions. According to a result of Walkup, the face vector of any triangulated 4-manifold $X$ with Euler characteristic $χ$ satisfies $f_1 \geq 5f_0 - {15/2} χ$, with equality only for $X \in {\cal K}(4)$. Kühnel observed that this implies $f_0(f_0 - 11) \geq -15χ$, with equality only for 2-neighborly …
We define Pin(2)-equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer homology for rational homology 3-spheres equipped with a spin structure. The analogue of Froyshov's correction term in this setting is an integer-valued invariant of homology cobordism whose mod 2 reduction is the Rokhlin invariant. As an application, we show that there are no homology 3-spheres Y of Rokhlin invariant one such that Y # Y bounds an acyclic smooth 4-manifold. By previous work of Galewski-Stern and Matumoto, this implies the existence of non-triangulable high-dimensional manifolds.
We study intersection of two polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. We find necessary and sufficient conditions on sequences x = x_1,x_2,...,x_n, y = y_1,y_2,...,y_n of positive integers, for existence of 2-dimensional polyhedra f,g in R^3 homeomorphic to the sphere and such that * f-g has n connected components, of which the i-th one has x_i neighbors in f and * g-f has n connected components, of which the i-th one has y_i neighbors in g. Analogously we study intersection of three polyhedral spheres without self-intersections in 3-space. Russian version is accessible to hig…
A variant of the Circle Packing Theorem states that the combinatorial class of any convex polyhedron contains elements midscribed to the unit sphere centered at the origin, and that these representatives are unique up to Möbius transformations of the sphere. Motivated by this result, various papers investigate the problem of centering spherical configurations under Möbius transformations. In particular, Springborn proved that for any discrete point set on the sphere there is a Möbius transformation that maps it into a set whose barycenter is the origin, which implies that the combinatorial cla…
We give a complete enumeration of all combinatorial 3-manifolds with 10 vertices: There are precisely 247882 triangulated 3-spheres with 10 vertices as well as 518 vertex-minimal triangulations of the sphere product $S^2\times S^1$ and 615 triangulations of the twisted sphere product $S^2_\times_S^1$. All the 3-spheres with up to 10 vertices are shellable, but there are 29 vertex-minimal non-shellable 3-balls with 9 vertices.
Cannon, Swenson, and others have proved numerous theorems about subdivision rules associated to hyperbolic groups with a 2-sphere at infinity. However, few explicit examples are known. We construct an explicit subdivision rule for many 3-manifolds from polyhedral gluings. The manifolds that satisfy the conditions include all closed manifolds created from right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra, as well as many 3-manifolds with toral or hyperbolic boundary.
The search for universality in random triangulations of manifolds, like those featuring in (Euclidean) Dynamical Triangulations, is central to the random geometry approach to quantum gravity. In case of the 3-sphere, or any other manifold of dimension greater than two for that matter, the pursuit is held back by serious challenges, including the wide open problem of enumerating triangulations. In an attempt to bypass the toughest challenges we identify a restricted family of triangulations, of which the enumeration appears less daunting. In a nutshell, the family consists of triangulated 3-sph…
In this paper, we adopt combinatorial Ricci curvature flow methods to study the existence of cusped hyperbolic structure on 3-manifolds with torus boundary. For general pseudo 3-manifolds, we prove the long-time existence and the uniqueness for the extended Ricci flow for decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metrics. We prove that the extended Ricci flow converges to a decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metric if and only if there exists a decorated hyperbolic polyhedral metric of zero Ricci curvature. If it is the case, the flow converges exponentially fast. These results apply for cusped hyperbolic …
A canonical branched covering over each sufficiently good simplicial complex is constructed. Its structure depends on the combinatorial type of the complex. In this way, each closed orientable 3-manifold arises as a branched covering over the 3-sphere from some triangulation of S^3. This result is related to a theorem of Hilden and Montesinos. The branched coverings introduced admit a rich theory in which the group of projectivities plays a central role.
We establish a connection between two previously unrelated topics: a particular discrete version of conformal geometry for triangulated surfaces, and the geometry of ideal polyhedra in hyperbolic three-space. Two triangulated surfaces are considered discretely conformally equivalent if the edge lengths are related by scale factors associated with the vertices. This simple definition leads to a surprisingly rich theory featuring Möbius invariance, the definition of discrete conformal maps as circumcircle preserving piecewise projective maps, and two variational principles. We show how literally…
It is known that the $(2k-1)$-sphere has at most $2^{O(n^k \log n)}$ combinatorially distinct triangulations with $n$ vertices, for every $k\ge 2$. Here we construct at least $2^{Ω(n^k)}$ such triangulations, improving on the previous constructions which gave $2^{Ω(n^{k-1})}$ in the general case (Kalai) and $2^{Ω(n^{5/4})}$ for $k=2$ (Pfeifle-Ziegler). We also construct $2^{Ω\left(n^{k-1+\frac{1}{k}}\right)}$ geodesic (a.k.a. star-convex) $n$-vertex triangualtions of the $(2k-1)$-sphere. As a step for this (in the case $k=2$) we construct $n$-vertex $4$-polytopes containing $Ω(n^{3/2})$ facets…
We study a variation of Bagchi and Datta's $σ$-vector of a simplicial complex $C$, whose entries are defined as weighted averages of Betti numbers of induced subcomplexes of $C$. We show that these invariants satisfy an Alexander-Dehn-Sommerville type identity, and behave nicely under natural operations on triangulated manifolds and spheres such as connected sums and bistellar flips. In the language of commutative algebra, the invariants are weighted sums of graded Betti numbers of the Stanley-Reisner ring of $C$. This interpretation implies, by a result of Adiprasito, that the Billera-Lee sph…
The main result is that every complete finite area hyperbolic metric on a sphere with punctures can be uniquely realized as the induced metric on the surface of a convex ideal polyhedron in hyperbolic 3-space. A number of other observations are included.
