arXiv research

New hyperbolic groups from ping-pong automorphisms.

Study the boundary of hyperbolic groups generated by atoroidal automorphisms.

The study classifies subgroups of outer automorphisms of free products.

Defines fibered commensurability for outer automorphisms of free groups, proving uniqueness of minimal elements.

The paper studies automorphisms of free groups with a North-South dynamics.

We show that every co--orientable taut foliation F of an orientable, atoroidal 3-manifold admits a transverse essential lamination. If this transverse lamination is a foliation G, the pair F,G are the unstable and stable foliation respectively of an Anosov flow. Otherwise, F admits a pair of transverse very full genuin…

By using a notion of a geometric Dehn twist in $\sharp_k(S^2 \times S^1)$, we prove that when projections of two $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings to the free factor complex are far enough from each other in the free factor complex, Dehn twist automorphisms corresponding to the $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings generate a free group of ra…

Polynomial-time algorithm detects fully irreducible automorphisms in Out(F_N).

Study on Hausdorff dimension of lamination endpoints for fully irreducible automorphisms.

Maps don't exist for certain CAT(0) groups with isolated flats.

Study finds infinitely many surface bundle types with zero signature.

New calculations of topological complexity for symplectic CW-complexes.

We define a decomposition of link projections whose pieces we call atoroidal graphs. We describe a surgery operation on these graphs and show that all atoroidal graphs can be generated by performing surgery repeatedly on a family of well known link projections. This gives a method of enumerating atoroidal graphs and he…

New theorem on subgroup dynamics of Out(F_N).

We give an algorithmic proof of the theorem that a closed orientable irreducible and atoroidal 3-manifold has only finitely many Heegaard splittings in each genus, up to isotopy. The proof gives an algorithm to determine the Heegaard genus of an atoroidal 3-manifold.

For a knot $K$, Kakimizu introduced a simplicial complex whose vertices are all the isotopy classes of minimal genus spanning surfaces for $K$. The first purpose of this paper is to prove the 1-skeleton of this complex has diameter bounded by a function quadratic in knot genus, whenever $K$ is atoroidal. The second pur…

We study hyperbolic cohomology classes in the general context of simplicial complexes and prove homological invariance statements for them. We relate the existence of hyperbolic cohomology classes to the non-amenability of the fundamental group. In degree two we clarify the relation between hyperbolic and atoroidal cla…

Given a finitely generated subgroup $Γ\le \mathrm{Out}(\mathbb{F})$ of the outer automorphism group of the rank $r$ free group $\mathbb{F} = F_r$, there is a corresponding free group extension $1 \to \mathbb{F} \to E_Γ \to Γ\to 1$. We give sufficient conditions for when the extension $E_Γ$ is hyperbolic. In particular,…

New examples of surface bundles found over surfaces.

Study of 3-manifolds with profinite completions and JSJ decompositions.

New proof shows all knots in certain plat diagrams are hyperbolic.

The paper studies cylindrical handlebody-knots of genus two with unique unknotting annuli and finds trivial symmetry groups.

For any atoroidal iwip $φ\in Out(F_N)$ the mapping torus group $G_φ=F_N\rtimes_φ<t>e$ is hyperbolic, and the embedding $ι: F_N \overset{\lhd}{\longrightarrow} G_φ$ induces a continuous, $F_N$-equivariant and surjective {\em Cannon-Thurston map} $\hat ι: \partial F_N \to \partial G_φ$. We prove that for any $φ$ as above…

This is the less official, English version of the proof of the fact that every closed atoroidal 3-manifold carries finitely many isotopy classes of tight contact structures.

Study shows complexity bounds for prime 3-manifolds using cohomology.

We prove that if $T$ is an $\mathbb R$-tree with a minimal free isometric action of $F_N$, then the $Out(F_N)$-stabilizer of the projective class $[T]$ is virtually cyclic. For the special case where $T=T_+(φ)$ is the forward limit tree of an atoroidal iwip element $φ\in Out(F_N)$ this is a consequence of the results o…

We present a sketch of the proof of the following theorems: (1) Every 3-manifold has only finitely many homotopy classes of 2-plane fields which carry tight contact structures. (2) Every closed atoroidal 3-manifold carries finitely many isotopy classes of tight contact structures.

We give a proof of the so-called generalized Waldhausen conjecture, which says that an orientable irreducible atoroidal 3-manifold has only finitely many Heegaard splittings in each genus, up to isotopy. Jaco and Rubinstein have announced a proof of this conjecture using different methods.

Study on cylindrical handlebody-knots with symmetry and rigidity properties.

Maps minimize periodic points for high periods, but not for low periods.

Let V be a closed 3-manifold. In this paper we prove that the homotopy classes of plane fields on V that contain tight contact structures are in finite number and that, if V is atoroidal, the isotopy classes of tight contact structures are also in finite number.

We study the set of volumes of constant scalar curvature one metrics on an atoroidal three-manifold.The infinum of this set is believed to be attained at a hyperbolic metric. We prove that the supremum of this set is always infinity. The technique is: minimal surfaces, Thurston norm in homology and new conformal invari…

Brunnian theta curves in 3D spheres have hyperbolic exteriors.

We show that the canonical contact structure on the link of a normal complex singularity is universally tight. As a corollary we show the existence of closed, oriented, atoroidal 3-manifolds with infinite fundamental groups which carry universally tight contact structures that are not deformations of taut (or Reebless)…

We study framed links in irreducible 3-manifolds that are $Z$-homology 3-spheres or atoroidal $Q$-homology 3-spheres. We calculate the dual of the Kauffman skein module over the ring of two variable power series with complex coefficients. For links in $S^3$ we give a new construction of the classical Kauffman polynomia…

We show that if a closed atoroidal 3-manifold M contains a genuine lamination, then it is group negatively curved in the sense of Gromov. Specifically, we exploit the structure of the non-product complementary regions of the genuine lamination and then apply the first author's Ubiquity Theorem to show that M satisfies …

The purpose of this article is to give a proof of the Orbifold Theorem announced by Thurston in late 1981: If $O$ is a compact, connected, orientable, irreducible and topologically atoroidal 3-orbifold with non-empty ramification locus, then $O$ is geometric. As a corollary, any smooth orientation preserving non-free f…

We will use immersed surfaces to study Seifert fibered surgery on Montesinos knots, and show that if $\frac 1{q_1-1} + \frac 1{q_2-1} + \frac 1{q_3-1} \leq 1$ then a Montesinos knot $K(\frac{p_1}{q_1}, \frac{p_2}{q_2}, \frac{p_3}{q_3})$ admits no atoroidal Seifert fibered surgery.

We construct a pair of transverse genuine laminations on an atoroidal 3-manifold admitting transversely orientable uniform 1-cochain. The laminations are induced by the uniform 1-cochain and they are indeed the "straightening" of the coarse laminations defined in [Ca], by using minimal surface techniques. Moreover, whe…

The main theorem of this paper generalizes recent results in Dehn surgery to the case of handlebody attachment. We consider attaching handlebodies and solid tori to the boundary of an irreducible, boundary-irreducible, atoroidal and acylindrical 3-manifold. We show that for a large class of homeomorphisms attaching the…

Paper defines a partial order on multibranched surfaces in 3-manifolds.

In this article, we study the knots realized by periodic orbits of R-covered Anosov flows in compact 3-manifolds. We show that if two orbits are freely homotopic then in fact they are isotopic. We show that lifts of periodic orbits to the universal cover are unknotted. When the manifold is atoroidal, we deduce some fin…

Paper proves periodic orbits for Hamiltonian systems in twisted disc bundles.

Automorphisms of handlebodies arise naturally in the a classification of automorphisms of three-manifolds. Among automorphisms of handlebodies, there are certain automorphisms called irreducible (or generic), which are analogues of pseudo-Anosov automorphisms of surfaces. We show that irreducible automorphisms of handl…

Study shows universal circles for taut foliations in 3-manifolds.

The paper studies automorphisms of pure braid groups and their properties.

Study shows RAAG automorphisms and outer automorphisms are not relatively hyperbolic.

Study knot invariants using automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups.