arXiv research

Paper confirms Whitehead's conjecture for aspherical 2-complexes.

Finite simply connected 2-complexes with nonpositive planar curvature are collapsible.

Study of knots and links in 2-complexes, defining linking numbers and polynomials.

A 2-complex requires at least 12 colours to avoid edge conflicts.

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…

New infinite family of 2-complexes intrinsically linked in 4D.

Proves universal pairing result for 2-complexes, showing lack of positivity.

Study 2-complexes' homology properties and torsion growth.

3D Schoenflies theorem for simply-connected 2-complexes.

We investigate the Tits boundary of locally compact CAT(0) 2-complexes. In particular we show that away from the endpoints, a geodesic segment in the Tits boundary is the ideal boundary of an isometrically embedded Euclidean sector. As applications, we provide sufficient conditions for two points in the Tits boundary t…

New rational curvature measures for 2-complexes.

The paper shows examples of 2-complexes that can't be embedded in R^4, hiding obstructions in higher Milnor invariants.

We consider computational complexity of problems related to the fundamental group and the first homology group of (embeddable) $2$-complexes. We show, as an extension of an earlier work, that computing first homology of $2$-complexes is equivalent in computational complexity to matrix diagonalization. That is, the usua…

We prove a finiteness result for the systolic area of groups, answering a question of M. Gromov. Namely, we show that there are only finitely many possible unfree factors of fundamental groups of~2-complexes whose systolic area is uniformly bounded. Furthermore, we prove a uniform systolic inequality for all 2-complexe…

The paper shows geometric realisation over specific groups and knots.

Study L^2-Betti numbers in prime characteristic for a conjecture about 2-complex towers.

The study finds stably free modules and distinct 2-complexes for large ranks.

A complex disproves a curvature property.

We introduce a norm on the real 1-cohomology of finite 2-complexes determined by the Euler characteristics of graphs on these complexes. We also introduce twisted Alexander-Fox polynomials of groups and show that they give rise to norms on the real 1-cohomology of groups. Our main theorem states that for a finite 2-com…

Rationality proved for curvature invariants of 2-complexes.

Let $X$ be a contractible $2$-complex which is a union of two contractible subcomplexes $Y$ and $Z.$ Is the intersection $Y\cap Z$ contractible as well? In this note, we prove that the inclusion-induced map $π_{1}(Y\cap Z)\rightarrow π_{1}(Z)$ is injective if $Y$ is $π_{1}$-injective subcomplex in a locally CAT(0) 2-co…

We show that there can be no algorithm to decide whether infinite recursively described acyclic aspherical 2-complexes are contractible. We construct such a complex that is contractible if and only if the Collatz conjecture holds.

Let X be a finite 2-complex with unfree fundamental group. We prove lower bounds for the area of a metric on X, in terms of the square of the least length of a noncontractible loop in X. We thus establish a uniform systolic inequality for all unfree 2-complexes. Our inequality improves the constant in M. Gromov's inequ…

The paper explores conditions for sections in Lefschetz fibrations and bundles over 2-complexes.

It is known that all but finitely many leaves of a measured foliated 2-complex of thin type are quasi-isometric to an infinite tree with at most two topological ends. We show that if the foliation is cooriented, and the associated R-tree is self-similar, then a typical leaf has exactly one topological end. We also cons…

We prove a systolic inequality for the phi-relative 1-systole of a phi-essential 2-complex, where phi is a homomorphism from the fundamental group of the complex, to a finitely presented group G. Indeed we show that universally for any phi-essential Riemannian 2-complex, and any G, the area of X is bounded below by 1/8…

Kervaire's sphere-link is equivalent to a ribbon sphere-link, simplifying complex 2-complexes.

Random branched covers of groups are homotopy equivalent to geometrically small cancellation complexes.

We show that the Reshetikhin-Turaev-Walker invariant of 3-manifolds can be normalized to obtain an invariant of 4-dimensional thickenings of 2-complexes. Moreover when the underlying semisimple tortile category comes from the representations of a quantum group at a primitive prime root of unity, the 0-term in the Ohtsu…

Concerns decompositions of smooth 4-manifolds as the union of two handlebodies, each with handles of index <=2 (``Heegard'' decompositions).Sample result: Two 2-complexes are (up to 2-deformation) dual spines of a Heegard decomposition of the 4-sphere if and only if they satisfy the conclusions of the Alexander-Lefshet…

Fixed point sets of certain group actions are contractible.

The vanishing of Van Kampen's obstruction is known to be necessary and sufficient for embeddability of a simplicial n-complex into $R^{2n}$ for $n\neq 2$, and it was recently shown to be incomplete for $n=2$. We use algebraic-topological invariants of four-manifolds with boundary to introduce a sequence of higher embed…

Scharlemann constructed a connected simplicial 2-complex $Γ$ with an action by the group ${\mathcal H_{2}}$ of isotopy classes of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of $S^3$ that preserve the isotopy class of an unknotted genus 2 handlebody $V$. In this paper we prove that the 2-complex $Γ$ is contractible. Therefor…

3D analog of Whitney's planarity criterion for 2-complexes.

The image of the branch set of a PL branched cover between PL $n$-manifolds is a simplicial $(n-2)$-complex. We demonstrate that the reverse implication also holds: an open and discrete map $f \colon \mathbb{S}^n \to \mathbb{S}^n$ with the image of the branch set contained in a simplicial $(n-2)$-complex is equivalent …

Diagrammatic reducibility DR and its generalization vertex asphericity VA are combinatorial tools developed for detecting asphericity of a 2-complex. Here we present tests for a relative version of VA that apply to pairs of 2-complexes $(L,K)$, where $K$ is a subcomplex of $L$. We show that a relative weight test holds…

The paper finds incommensurable lattices in complex models of Baumslag-Solitar groups.

The paper finds a short graph incompressible in a complex with specific properties.

We consider a 2-complex in a particular form, called the Quinn model of a 2-complex. It can be sliced in graphs, where a change from one graph to another can be organized by a sequence of local transitions, which are described in a list of F. Quinn [Q1]. The decomposition of that 2-complex into graphs has to be transla…

Researchers show a complex structure is not a counterexample to a topological problem.

The paper studies a relative version of non-positive immersion for 2-complex pairs and shows conditions under which a transitivity law holds.

Study embeddability of 2-complexes in 4-space, proving Heawood family's excluded minors.

We examine a condition on a simply connected 2-complex X ensuring that groups acting properly on X are coherent. This extends earlier work on 2-complexes with negative sectional curvature which covers the case that G acts freely. Our extension of these results involves a generalization of the notion of sectional curvat…

New 5-manifold without 'spine' challenges deformation conjecture.

A simplicial complex is called negatively curved if all its simplices are isometric to simplices in hyperbolic space, and it satisfies Gromov's Link Condition. We prove that, subject to certain conditions, a compact graph of spaces whose vertex spaces are negatively curved 2-complexes, and whose edge spaces are points …

The main result of this article is that among the family of one-relator presentation 2-complexes that might be expected to be finitely unsplittable (not the union of two proper subpolyhedra with finite first homology groups) almost all have this property. Included among these one-relator presentation 2-complexes are al…

Two simple homotopy equivalent 2-complexes K2 and L2 are related by an algebraic criterion of their corresponding presentations as stated in [HoMeSier]. Frank Quinn set it into a topological context (see [Qu1]) and call these 2-complexes related by an s-move. Using elementary 3-expansions, K2 extends to 3-cells in K3 r…

We study Linial-Meshulam random 2-complexes, which are two-dimensional analogues of Erdős-Rényi random graphs. We find the threshold for simple connectivity to be p = n^{-1/2}. This is in contrast to the threshold for vanishing of the first homology group, which was shown earlier by Linial and Meshulam to be p = 2 log(…