arXiv research

Culler-Shalen theory uses the algebraic geometry of the SL(2,C)-character variety of a 3-manifold to construct essential surfaces in the manifold. There are module structures associated to the coordinate rings of the irreducible components of character varieties that are intimately related to essential surface construc…

Culler-Shalen theory extended to arbitrary characteristic.

We classify Dehn surgeries on (p,q,r) pretzel knots resulting in a manifold M(s) having cyclic fundamental group and analyze those leading to a finite fundamental group. The proof uses the theory of cyclic and finite surgeries developed by Culler, Shalen, Boyer, and Zhang. In particular, Culler-Shalen seminorms play a …

Consider the exterior M of a hyperbolic knot lying in a closed, connected, orientable 3-manifold. Culler and Shalen defined norm on H_1(dM;R) using the SL(2,C) character variety of pi_1(M). The Culler-Shalen norm encodes many topological properties of M; in particular it provides information about Dehn fillings of M. T…

The paper examines slopes and their norms in exceptional Dehn fillings.

New topological criterion extends arithmetic invariants in hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

The coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials of a knot induce regular functions of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that the function of the highest degree has a finite value at an ideal point which gives a minimal genus Seifert surface by Culler-Shalen theory. It implies a partial affirmative an…

Extending Culler-Shalen theory, Hara and the second author presented a way to construct certain kinds of branched surfaces in a $3$-manifold from an ideal point of a curve in the $\operatorname{SL}_n$-character variety. There exists an essential surface in some $3$-manifold known to be not detected in the classical $\o…

We describe a method to compute the Culler-Shalen seminorms of a knot, using the (-3,3,4) pretzel knot as an illustrative example. We deduce that the SL2(C)-character variety of this knot consists of three algebraic curves and that it admits no non-trivial cyclic or finite surgeries. We also summarize similar results f…

We show that the SL(2,C)-character variety of the (-2,3,n) pretzel knot consists of two (respectively three) algebraic curves when 3 does not divide n (respectively 3 divides n) and give an explicit calculation of the Culler-Shalen seminorms of these curves. Using this calculation, we describe the fundamental polygon a…

We determine the total Culler-Shalen seminorms for the 3-manifolds W_{p/q}:=W(p/q,-) obtained by Dehn filling with slope p/q on one boundary component of the Whitehead link exterior W when p is odd. As part of the proof, we use an explicit parametrization of the eigenvalue variety of W to find a one-variable polynomial…

We study incompressible surfaces constructed by Culler-Shalen theory in the context of twisted Alexander polynomials. For a $1$st cohomology class of a $3$-manifold the coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials induce regular functions on the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that if an ideal point giv…

Let X be a norm curve in the SL(2,C)-character variety of a knot exterior M. Let t = || b || / || a || be the ratio of the Culler-Shalen norms of two distinct non-zero classes a, b in H_1(\partial M, Z). We demonstrate that either X has exactly two associated strict boundary slopes \pm t, or else there are strict bound…

Closed essential surfaces in a three-manifold can be detected by ideal points of the character variety or by algebraic non-integral representations. We give examples of closed essential surfaces not detected in either of these ways. For ideal points, we use Chesebro's module-theoretic interpretation of Culler-Shalen th…

This paper presents a curvature-free version of the Log(2k-1) Theorem of Anderson, Canary, Culler & Shalen [ACCS96]. It generalizes a result by Hou [Hou01] and its proof is rather straightforward once we know the work by Lim [Lim08] on volume entropy for graphs. As a byproduct we obtain a curvature-free version of the …

We prove an inequality that must be satisfied by displacement of generators of free Fuchsian groups, which is the two-dimensional version of the $\log (2k-1)$ Theorem for Kleinian groups due to Anderson-Canary-Culler-Shalen. As applications, we obtain quantitative results on the geometry of hyperbolic surfaces such as …

In this paper we define the adjoint Reidemeister torsion as a differential form on the character variety of a compact oriented 3-manifold with toral boundary, and prove it defines a regular volume form. Then we show that the torsion form can vanish only at singular points of the character variety. In fact, if the singu…

Study shows how certain knots and tori are detected by ideal points in character varieties.

We give a simple sufficient condition for a spun-normal surface in an ideal triangulation to be incompressible, namely that it is a vertex surface with non-empty boundary which has a quadrilateral in each tetrahedron. While this condition is far from being necessary, it is powerful enough to give two new results: the e…

Let $M$ be a compact 3-manifold and $Γ=π_1(M)$. Work of Thurston and Culler--Shalen established the $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$ character variety $X(Γ)$ as fundamental tool in the study of the geometry and topology of $M$. This is particularly the case when $M$ is the exterior of a hyperbolic knot $K$ in $S^3$. The mai…

We derive a simple closed formula for the SL(2,C) Casson invariant for Seifert fibered homology 3-spheres using the correspondence between SL(2,C) character varieties and moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles of rank two. These results are then used to deduce the invariant for Dehn surgeries on twist knots by combin…

We classify Dehn surgeries on (p,q,r) pretzel knots that result in a manifold of finite fundamental group. The only hyperbolic pretzel knots that admit non-trivial finite surgeries are (-2,3,7) and (-2,3,9). Agol and Lackenby's 6-theorem reduces the argument to knots with small indices p,q,r. We treat these using the C…

The paper shows how subgroups of 3-manifold groups can be realized in small submanifolds.

The hitting measure is singular and has dimension less than 1 for cocompact Fuchsian groups.

We study a twisted Alexander polynomial naturally associated to a hyperbolic knot in an integer homology 3-sphere via a lift of the holonomy representation to SL(2, C). It is an unambiguous symmetric Laurent polynomial whose coefficients lie in the trace field of the knot. It contains information about genus, fibering,…

Let $M$ be a $3$-manifold, compact with boundary and $Γ$ its fundamental group. Consider a complex reductive algebraic group G. The character variety $X(Γ,G)$ is the GIT quotient $\mathrm{Hom}(Γ,G)//G$ of the space of morphisms $Γ\to G$ by the natural action by conjugation of $G$. In the case $G=\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb C…

Culler and Shalen, and later Yoshida, give ways to construct incompressible surfaces in 3-manifolds from ideal points of the character and deformation varieties, respectively. We work in the case of hyperbolic punctured torus bundles, for which the incompressible surfaces were classified by Floyd and Hatcher. We conver…

A marked surface is a compact oriented surface equipped with some pairwise disjoint arcs embedded in its boundary. In this paper, we extend the notion of character varieties to marked surfaces, in such a way that they have a nice behaviour for the operation of gluing two boundary arcs together. These stated character v…

We investigate the behavior of the SL(2,C) Casson invariant for 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn surgery along two-bridge knots. Using the results of Hatcher and Thurston, and also results of Ohtsuki, we outline how to compute the Culler--Shalen seminorms, and we illustrate this approach by providing explicit computations …

Improved lower bounds on volumes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds with specific topologies.

The paper connects function theory, dynamics, and ergodic theory via Thurston's theory.

Survey of Floer theories and their connections.

Lectures on topological field theories and differential cohomology.

The paper defines strong emergence in field theories and proves it exists between certain theories.

This is the first paper in a series introducing a generalized Fredholm theory in a new class of smooth spaces called polyfolds. The theory will be illustrated in upcoming papers by applications to Floer Theory, Gromov-Witten Theory and Symplectic Field Theory.

Unified Higgs bundle vacua from M-theory on Spin(7) spaces.

Researchers find new $G_2$-conifolds in $M$-theory with potential field theory duals.

We survey three different ways in which K-theory in all its forms enters quantum field theory. In Part 1 we give a general argument which relates topological field theory in codimension two with twisted K-theory, and we illustrate with some finite models. Part 2 is a review of pfaffians of Dirac operators, anomalies, a…

Distributivity in algebraic structures appeared in many contexts such as in quasigroup theory, semigroup theory and algebraic knot theory. In this paper we give a survey of distributivity in quasigroup theory and in quandle theory.

New theory captures framing anomaly in gauge theory.

Survey on algebraic K- and L-theory conjecture.

Study pin manifolds using Clifford linear Dirac operator and KO-theory.

Main mathematical applications of Frobenius manifolds are in the theory of Gromov - Witten invariants, in singularity theory, in differential geometry of the orbit spaces of reflection groups and of their extensions, in the hamiltonian theory of integrable hierarchies. The theory of Frobenius manifolds establishes rema…

In this paper, we construct a new homology theory for semi-groups satisfying the self distributivity axiom or the idempotency axiom. Next, we consider the geometric realization corresponding to the homology theory. We continue with the comparison of this homology theory with one term and two term (rack) homology theori…

Quantum field theory uses Lorentzian bordisms to describe time evolution.

This thesis proposes a global geometric formulation of Extended Field Theories.

This is the revised version of the second paper in a series introducing a generalized Fredholm theory in a new class of smooth spaces called polyfolds. The theory will be illustrated in upcoming papers by applications to Floer Theory, Gromov-Witten Theory and Symplectic Field Theory. Some proofs have been improved and …

The paper quantizes hybrid topological-holomorphic field theories on $\mathbb{R}^m imes \mathbb{C}^n$.