arXiv research

Study shows knots in Poincaré sphere can't be 'cosmetically' altered.

33 curves on a 3-genus surface, all intersecting at most once.

The purpose of this note is to announce complete answers to the following questions. (1) For an essential simple loop on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement, when is it null-homotopic in the link complement? (2) For two distinct essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement, when…

We give a complete characterization of those essential simple loops on 2-bridge spheres of 2-bridge links which are null-homotopic in the link complements. By using this result, we describe all upper-meridian-pair-preserving epimorphisms between 2-bridge link groups.

We fix a null-homologous, homotopically essential knot $J$ in a 3-manifold with PTFA fundamental group and study concordance of knots that are homotopic to $J$. We construct an infinite family of knots that are characteristic to $J$, and then use $L^2$-methods to show that they are not concordant to $J$.

In this paper and its prequel, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in an even Heckoid orbifold for a 2-bridge link to be homotopic in the orbifold. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for an essential simple loop on a 2-bridge sphere in an even …

In this paper and its sequel, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in an even Heckoid orbifold for a 2-bridge link to be homotopic in the orbifold. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for an essential simple loop on a 2-bridge sphere in an even H…

In this paper and its two sequels, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement to be homotopic in the link complement. This paper treats the case when the 2-bridge link is a $(2,p)$-torus link, where more cases of homotopy arise, and its…

This is the second of a series of papers which give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement to be homotopic in the link complement. The first paper of the series treated the case of the 2-bridge torus links. In this paper, we treat the case …

Algorithms find second and third shortest non-trivial closed walks on surfaces.

Study on packing links with geometric constraints.

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…

This is the last of a series of papers which give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement to be homotopic in the link complement. The first paper of the series treated the case of the 2-bridge torus links, and the second paper treated the ca…

Following Riley's work, for each 2-bridge link $K(r)$ of slope $r\in\QQ$ and an integer or a half-integer $n$ greater than 1, we introduce the {\it Heckoid orbifold $\orbs(r;n)$} and the {\it Heckoid group $\Hecke(r;n)=π_1(\orbs(r;n))$ of index $n$ for $K(r)$}. When $n$ is an integer, $\orbs(r;n)$ is called an {\it eve…

Two natural questions are answered in the negative: (1) If a space has the property that small nulhomotopic loops bound small nulhomotopies, then are loops which are limits of nulhomotopic loops themselves nulhomotopic? (2) Can adding arcs to a space cause an essential curve to become nulhomotopic? The answer to the fi…

Essential triangulations connect via specific moves in 3-manifolds.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the concepts of homotopical smallness and closeness. These are the properties of homotopical classes of maps that are related to recent developments in homotopy theory and to the construction of universal covering spaces for non-semilocally simply connected spaces, in particular to…

This paper classifies embedded, codimension-one spheres which are null homotopic. This information is used to show that all null homotopic, immersed codimension-one spheres which are taut in the sense of Terng and Thorbergsson are actually distance spheres.

Null-homotopic knots in certain 3-manifolds are uniquely identified by their complements.

Complex surfaces show non-simply connected diffeomorphism groups with non-homotopic loops.

The paper defines and analyzes homotopic rotation sets for surfaces of higher genus.

We prove that on a punctured oriented surface with Euler characteristic chi < 0, the maximal cardinality of a set of essential simple arcs that are pairwise non-homotopic and intersecting at most once is 2|chi|(|chi|+1). This gives a cubic estimate in |chi| for a set of curves pairwise intersecting at most once on a cl…

We survey some properties of homotopical and homological $Z_n$-sets in topological spaces.

Two virtual link diagrams are homotopic if one may be transformed into the other by a sequence of virtual Reidemeister moves, classical Reidemeister moves, and self crossing changes. We recall the pure virtual braid group. We then describe the set of pure virtual braids that are homotopic to the identity braid.

The Epstein-Baer theory of curve isotopies is basic to the remarkable theorem that homotopic homeomorphisms of surfaces are isotopic. The groundbreaking work of R. Baer was carried out on closed, orientable surfaces and extended by D. B. A. Epstein to arbitrary surfaces, compact or not, with or without boundary and ori…

We classify homotopes of classical symmetric spaces (studied in Part I of this work). Our classification uses the fibered structure of homotopes: they are fibered as symmetric spaces, with flat fibers, over a non-degenerate base; the base spaces correspond to inner ideals in Jordan pairs. Using that inner ideals in cla…

In the first part of this paper, we let $G$ be a finitely-generated amenable group such that $G/[G, G]$ is torsion-free. We suppose that $G$ acts by homeomorphisms homotopic to the identity on a manifold $M$, and give conditions on $M$ which imply that such an action must lift to an action on the universal cover $\tild…

It is known that shape injectivity implies homotopical Hausdorff and that the converse does not hold, even if the space is required to be a Peano continuum. This paper gives an alternative definition of homotopical Hausdorff inspired by a new topology on the set of fixed endpoint homotopy classes of paths. This version…

Global group laws connect equivariant bordism rings to formal group laws.

We modify the definition of the Khovanov complex for oriented links in a thickening of an oriented surface to obtain a triply graded homological link invariant with a new homotopical grading.

New surfaces in a 4-manifold are found that are not isotopic but homotopic.

In this paper, we show that any compact K$ä$hler manifold homotopic to a compact Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curvature admits a K$ä$hler-Einstein metric of general type. Moreover, we prove that, on a compact symplectic manifold $X$ homotopic to a compact Riemannian manifold with negative sectional curva…

Paper extends theorem on covering spaces and Jordan curves.

Survey on foliations and diffeomorphism groups.

Study shows knots with specific properties avoid certain topological surgeries.

We show that intersection homology extends Poincare duality to manifold homotopically stratified spaces (satisfying mild restrictions). This includes showing that, on such spaces, the sheaf of singular intersection chains is quasi-isomorphic to the Deligne sheaf.

In this paper, we examine the homotopy classes of positive loops in Sp(2) and Sp(4). We show that two positive loops are homotopic if and only if they are homotopic through positive loops.

Let X be a compact 2-manifold with nonempty boundary dX and let f: (X, dX) --> (X, dX) be a boundary-preserving map. Denote by MF_d[f] the minimum number of fixed point among all boundary-preserving maps that are homotopic through boundary-preserving maps to f. The relative Nielsen number N_d(f) is the sum of the numbe…

We produce infinitely many examples of Anosov flows in closed 3-manifolds where the set of periodic orbits is partitioned into two infinite subsets. In one subset every closed orbit is freely homotopic to infinitely other closed orbits of the flow. In the other subset every closed orbit is freely homotopic to only one …

In this paper we study the groups of contactomorphisms of a closed contact manifold from a topological viewpoint. First we construct examples of contact forms on spheres whose Reeb flow has a dense orbit. Then we show that the unitary group U(n+1) is homotopically essential in the group of contactomorphisms of the stan…

Every nonflat conformal minimal surface is homotopic to a proper one.

Study shows how many crossings arise in curves on surfaces.

We define winding numbers of regular closed curves on surfaces with a nice euclidean or hyperbolic geometry. We prove that two regular closed curves are regularly homotopic if and only if they are freely homotopic and have the same winding number.

In this paper we elaborate a general homotopy-theoretic framework in which to study problems of descent and completion and of their duals, codescent and cocompletion. Our approach to homotopic (co)descent and to derived (co)completion can be viewed as $\infty$-category-theoretic, as our framework is constructed in the …

Riemannian Geometry, Topology and Dynamics permit to introduce partially defined holomorphic functions on the variety of representations of the fundamental group of a manifold. The functions we consider are the complex valued Ray-Singer torsion, the Milnor-Turaev torsion, and the dynamical torsion. They are associated …

Formula found for probability of random triangles on flat tori being homotopically trivial.

In this paper we construct an infinite family of homotopically rigid spaces. These examples are then used as building blocks to forge highly connected rational spaces with prescribed finite group of self-homotopy equivalences. They are also exploited to provide highly connected inflexible and strongly chiral manifolds.

From a fibered link in the 3-sphere may be constructed a field of not everywhere tangent 2-planes; when the fibered link is the link of an isolated critical point of a map from 4-space to the plane, the plane field is essentially the field of kernels of the derivative of the map. Homotopically, such a plane field deter…