arXiv research

Paper proves ratios of Chern numbers differ for complex hyperbolic branched covers.

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

This paper extends FP's method to complex hyperbolic branched covers to find Einstein metrics.

We consider closed orientable 3-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds which are cyclic branched coverings of the 3-sphere, with branching set being a two-bridge knot (or link). We establish two-sided linear bounds depending on the order of the covering for the Matveev complexity of the covering manifold. The lower estimate …

Study geometric properties of branched covers of hyperbolic manifolds.

\noindent Given a Riemann surface $M$, the \emph{complexity} of a branched cover of $M$ to the Riemann sphere $S^2$, of degree $d$ and with branching set of cardinality $n \geq 3$, is defined as $d$ times the hyperbolic area of the complement of its branching set in $S^2$. A branched cover $p \colon M \to S^2$ of degre…

Given a sub-hyperbolic semi-rational branched covering which is not CLH-equivalent a rational map, it must have the non-empty canonical Thurston obstruction. By using this canonical Thurston obstruction, we decompose this dynamical system in this paper into several sub-dynamical systems. Each of these sub-dynamical sys…

Gromov-Thurston covers have Betti numbers as expected.

Infinite family of hyperbolic 3-manifolds with large volumes.

The paper studies entropy in branched covers of 3-manifolds.

We view closed orientable 3-manifolds as covers of S^3 branched over hyperbolic links. For a p-fold cover M \to S^3, branched over a hyperbolic link L, we assign the complexity p Vol(S^3 minus L) (where Vol is the hyperbolic volume). We define an invariant of 3-manifolds, called the link volume and denoted LV, that ass…

The branched virtual fibering theorem by Sakuma states that every closed orientable $3$-manifold with a Heegaard surface of genus $g$ has a branched double cover which is a genus $g$ surface bundle over the circle. It is proved by Brooks that such a surface bundle can be chosen to be hyperbolic. We prove that the minim…

Let $p$ be a branched covering of a Riemann surface to the Riemann sphere $\mathbb{P}^1$, with branching set $B \subset \mathbb{P}^1$. We define the complexity of $p$ as infinity, if $\mathbb{P}^1 \setminus B$ does not admit a hyperbolic structure, or the product of its degree and the hyperbolic area of $\mathbb{P}^1 \…

We are interested in finite groups acting orientation-preservingly on 3-manifolds (arbitrary actions, ie not necessarily free actions). In particular we consider finite groups which contain an involution with nonempty connected fixed point set. This condition is satisfied by the isometry group of any hyperbolic cyclic …

To a branched cover between closed, connected and orientable surfaces one associates a "branch datum", which consists of the two surfaces, the total degree d, and the partitions of d given by the collections of local degrees over the branching points. This datum must satisfy the Riemann-Hurwitz formula. A "candidate su…

New criterion for branched covers between 2-spheres.

We study canonical decompositions of postcritically finite branched coverings of the 2-sphere, as defined by K. Pilgrim. We show that every hyperbolic cycle in the decomposition does not have a Thurston obstruction. It is thus Thurston equivalent to a rational map.

We obtain infinitely many (non-conjugate) representations of 3-manifold fundamental groups into a lattice in the holomorphic isometry group of complex hyperbolic space. The lattice is an orbifold fundamental group of a branched covering of the projective plane along an arrangement of hyperplanes constructed by Hirzebru…

We show that several torsion free 3-manifold groups are not left-orderable. Our examples are groups of cyclic branched covers of S^3 branched along links. The figure eight knot provides simple nontrivial examples. The groups arising in these examples are known as Fibonacci groups which we show not to be left-orderable.…

The paper constructs infinitely many prime hyperbolic knots.

We show that a hyperbolic $3$-manifold can be the cyclic branched cover of at most fifteen knots in $\mathbf{S}^3$. This is a consequence of a general result about finite groups of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms acting on $3$-manifolds. A similar, although weaker, result holds for arbitrary irreducible $3$-mani…

The paper studies harmonic maps between surfaces homotopic to a covering map, proving uniqueness and injectivity of Hopf differential.

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 …

Study determines left-orderable properties of knot covers.

Given a real analytic function $f$ from $\mathbb{R}^4$ to $\mathbb{R}^2$ with isolated critical point at the origin, the link $L_f$ of the singularity is a real fibred knot in $\mathbb{S}^{3}$. From this singularities, we construct a family of real isolated suspension singularities from $\mathbb{R}^6$ to $\mathbb{R}^2$…

We study branched covering spaces in several contexts, proving that under suitable circumstances the cover satisfies the same upper curvature bounds as the base space. The first context is of a branched cover of an arbitrary metric space that satisfies Alexandrov's curvature condition CAT(k), over an arbitrary complete…

We discuss two families of closed orientable three-dimensional manifolds which arise as cyclic generalizations of two hyperbolic icosahedral manifolds listed by Everitt. Everitt's manifolds are cyclic coverings of the lens space $L_{3,1}$ branched over some 2-component links. We present results on covering properties, …

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 …

We construct a generalization of twistor spaces of hypercomplex manifolds and hyper-Kahler manifolds $M$, by generalizing the twistor $\mathbb{P}^{1}$ to a more general complex manifold $Q$. The resulting manifold $X$ is complex if and only if $Q$ admits a holomorphic map to $\mathbb{P}^1$. We make branched double cove…

Solve arc diagrams on surfaces via branched covers.

We study the left-orderability of the fundamental groups of cyclic branched covers of links which admit co-oriented taut foliations. In particular we do this for cyclic branched covers of fibred knots in integer homology $3$-spheres and cyclic branched covers of closed braids. The latter allows us to complete the proof…

Branched covers are applied frequently in topology - most prominently in the construction of closed oriented PL d-manifolds. In particular, strong bounds for the number of sheets and the topology of the branching set are known for dimension d<=4. On the other hand, Izmestiev and Joswig described how to obtain a simplic…

Corks transform complex curves without changing topology.

Study irreducible SU(2) representations for knots in 3D.

Isometric embeddings of Teichmüller spaces are derived from branched coverings.

The paper presents a chain complex for 3-manifold covers, including surface bundles and surgeries.

We give examples of harmonic maps between negatively curved manifolds with special properties. These negatively curved manifolds do not have the homotopy type of a locally symmetric space.

We analyze the orbifolds that can be obtained as quotients of hyperbolic 3-manifolds admitting a Heegaard splitting of genus two by their orientation preserving isometry groups. The genus two hyperbolic 3-manifolds are exactly the hyperbolic 2-fold branched coverings of 3-bridge links. If the 3-bridge link is a knot, w…

We study the Kähler geometry of the classical Hurwitz space $\mathcal{H}^{n,b}$ of simple branched coverings of the Riemann sphere $\mathbb{P}^1$ by compact hyperbolic Riemann surfaces. A generalized Weil-Petersson metric on the Hurwitz space was recently introduced. Deformations of simple branched coverings fit into t…

The type problem is the problem of deciding, for a simply connected Riemann surface, whether it is conformally equivalent to the complex plane or to the unit dic in the complex plane. We report on Teichm{ü}ller's results on the type problem from his two papers Eine Anwendung quasikonformer Abbildungen auf das Typenprob…

By using double branched covers, we prove that there is a 1-1 correspondence between the set of knotoids in the 2-sphere, up to orientation reversion and rotation, and knots with a strong inversion, up to conjugacy. This correspondence allows us to study knotoids through tools and invariants coming from knot theory. In…

Researchers describe unitary representations of mixed braid groups.

Study on bending deformations in hyperbolic manifolds, generalizing Johnson and Millson's work.

A construction of a spatial graph from a strongly invertible knot was developed by the second author, and a necessary and sufficient condition for the given spatial graph to be hyperbolic was provided as well. The condition is improved in this paper. This enable us to show that certain classes of knots can yield hyperb…

In this paper, we demonstrate that the complete hyperbolic structure of various two-bridge knots and links cannot be deformed to an inequivalent strictly convex projective structure. We also prove a complementary result showing that under certain rigidity hypotheses, branched covers of amphicheiral knots admit non-triv…

We define a norm on the homology of a foliated manifold, which refines and majorizes the usual Gromov norm on homology. This norm depends in an upper semi-continuous way on the underlying foliation, in the geometric topology, and can therefore be used to study the question of which foliations arise as geometric limits …

Novel defects in hyperbolic sheets explain complex wrinkling patterns in nature.

The paper studies which branched covers can be lifted to braided embeddings.