arXiv research

Finite presentation for a specific group in 3D handlebody topology.

If $X$ is a compact set, a {\it topological contraction} is a self-embedding $f$ such that the intersection of the successive images $f^k(X)$, $k>0$, consists of one point. In dimension 3, we prove that there are smooth topological contractions of the handlebodies of genus $\geq 2$ whose image is essential. Our proof i…

High-dimensional handlebodies are shown to be products of simpler shapes.

We give an explicit formula for the signature of handlebody bundles over the circle in terms of the homological monodromy. This gives a cobounding function of Meyer's signature cocycle on the mapping class group of a $3$-dimensional handlebody, i.e., the handlebody group. As an application, we give a topological interp…

This note presents the handlebody argument for modifying achiral Lefschetz singularities into broken Lefschetz fibrations, yielding a handlebody proof of the existence of broken Lefschetz fibrations on arbitrary closed smooth oriented 4-manifolds based on the earlier work of Gay and Kirby. Appeared in Geometry and Topo…

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

The paper studies the topology and geometry of simple orbifolds, generalizing concepts from simple polytopes.

Study handles in 3D shapes, applies to material patterns.

Handlebody groups reduced to 3 or 4 generators for g ≥ 5 and 3 or 4 for g ≥ 3.

New symplectic caps and embeddings found in complex projective plane.

Study infinite genus surfaces and Schottky groups for uniformization.

Friedl and Kim show any taut sutured manifold can be realized as a twisted homology product, but their proof gives no practical description of how complicated the realizing representation needs to be. We give a number of results illustrating the relationship between the topology of a taut sutured handlebody and the com…

Paper proves Whitney stratified spaces can be given a conically smooth structure.

This paper proves that handlebody homeomorphisms are isotopic to identity.

In this paper we exhibit infinite families of embedded tori in 4-manifolds that are topologically isotopic but smoothly distinct. The interesting thing about these tori is that they are topologically trivial in the sense that each bounds a topologically embedded solid handlebody. This implies that there are stably ribb…

From any 4-dimensional oriented handlebody X without 3- and 4-handles and with b_2>0, we construct arbitrary many compact Stein 4-manifolds which are mutually homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to each other, so that their topological invariants (their fundamental groups, homology groups, boundary homology groups, and …

The study bounds distances in simplicial complexes and defines new invariants for 3-manifolds and handlebody-knots.

A trisection of a smooth, closed, oriented 4-manifold is a decomposition into three 4-dimensional 1-handlebodies meeting pairwise in 3-dimensional 1-handlebodies, with triple intersection a closed surface. The fundamental groups of the surface, the 3-dimensional handlebodies, the 4-dimensional handlebodies, and the clo…

Manufacturing infinite sets of knotted and unknotted surfaces in 4-manifolds.

Given a (genus 2) cube-with-holes M, i.e. the complement in S^3 of a handlebody H, we relate intrinsic properties of M (like its cut number) with extrinsic features depending on the way the handlebody H is knotted in S^3. Starting from a first level of knotting that requires the non-existence of a planar spine for H, w…

The aim of this article is to introduce and study certain topological invariants for closed, oriented three-manifolds Y. These groups are relatively Z-graded Abelian groups associated to SpinC structures over Y. Given a genus g Heegaard splitting of Y, these theories are variants of the Lagrangian Floer homology for th…

An open subset U of a complex surface can be topologically perturbed to yield an open subset whose inherited complex structure is Stein, if and only if U is homeomorphic to the interior of a handlebody whose handles all have index equal or less than 2.

New tropical geometry connects handlebodies and outer space.

The paper proves unique factorization of knotted handlebodies and examines handlebody-knot symmetry.

Complete classification of handlebody links up to six crossings.

Paper defines numerical criteria to test handlebody link irreducibility.

Study of Dehn twists in free groups generates right-angled Artin groups.

This paper continues the study of decompositions of a smooth 4-manifold into two handlebodies with handles of index $\leq2$. Part I gave existence results in terms of spines and chain complexes over the fundamental group of the ambient manifold. Here we assume that one side of a decomposition has larger fundamental gro…

A handlebody-link is a disjoint union of embeddings of handlebodies in $S^3$ and an HL-homotopy is an equivalence relation on handlebody-links generated by self-crossing changes. The second author and Ryo Nikkuni classified the set of HL-homotopy classes of 2-component handlebody-links completely using the linking numb…

The JSJ decomposition helps classify genus two handlebody-knots.

We give examples of knots in a genus 2 handlebody which have nontrivial Dehn surgeries yielding handlebodies and show that these knots are not 1--bridge.

Study on finiteness properties of handlebody mapping class groups.

Bridge positions of handlebody-knots are equivalent when stable.

We introduce several algebraic structures related to handlebody-knots, including $G$-families of biquandles, partially multiplicative biquandles and group decomposable biquandles. These structures can be used to color the semiarcs in $Y$-oriented spatial trivalent graph diagrams representing $S^1$-oriented handlebody-k…

A complex of incompressible surfaces in a handlebody is constructed so that it contains, as a subcomplex, the complex of curves of the boundary of the handlebody. For genus 2 handlebodies, the group of automorphisms of this complex is used to characterize the mapping class group of the handlebody. In particular, it is …

This paper classifies links in 3D dynamical systems.

We generalize unoriented handlebody-links to the twisted virtual case, obtaining Reidemeister moves for handlebody-links in ambient spaces of the form $Σ\times [0,1]$ for $Σ$ a compact closed 2-manifold up to stable equivalence. We introduce a related algebraic structure known as twisted virtual bikeigebras whose axiom…

Paper introduces an invariant to distinguish handlebody-knot exteriors.

Here we show that every compact smooth 4-manifold X has a structure of a Broken Lefschetz Fibration (BLF in short). Furthermore, if b_{2}^{+}(X)> 0 then it also has a Broken Lefschetz Pencil structure (BLP) with nonempty base locus. This imroves a Theorem of Auroux, Donaldson and Katzarkov, and our proof is topological…

Homological stability proved for handlebody mapping class groups.

Defines annulus complex of handlebodies and proves its connectivity.

Classifies 3-manifolds with uniformly positive scalar curvature.

The topology of Stein surfaces and contact 3-manifolds is studied by means of handle decompositions. A simple characterization of homeomorphism types of Stein surfaces is obtained --- they correspond to open handlebodies with all handles of index lessthan or = 2. An uncountable collection of exotic R^4's is shown to ad…

Enumerated all genus two handlebody-knots with seven crossings.

Proves certain subgroups of genus 2 handlebody group are convex cocompact.

A handlebody-knot is a handlebody embedded in the 3-sphere. We establish a uniform method to construct invariants for handlebody-links. We introduce the category $\mathcal{T}$ of handlebody-tangles and present it by generators and relations. The result tells us that every functor on $\mathcal{T}$ that gives rise to inv…

We introduce the notion of a $G$-family of quandles which is an algebraic system whose axioms are motivated by handlebody-knot theory, and use it to construct invariants for handlebody-knots. Our invariant can detect the chiralities of some handlebody-knots including unknown ones.

The Chen-Yang volume conjecture is verified for knots in handlebodies with specific boundary components.