arXiv research

Study disproves conjecture about quadratic differentials.

We show that the infinite cyclic cover of the exterior of the untwisted Whitehead double of a non-trivial knot does not embed in any compact 3-manifold, answering a question of Jiang, Ni, Wang and Zhou.

We study the linking numbers in a rational homology 3-sphere and in the infinite cyclic cover of the complement of a knot. They take values in $\Bbb Q$ and in ${Q}({\Bbb Z}[t,t^{-1}])$ respectively, where ${Q}({\Bbb Z}[t,t^{-1}])$ denotes the quotient field of ${\Bbb Z}[t,t^{-1}]$. It is known that the modulo-$\Bbb Z$ …

We show that the commutator subgroup G' of a classical knot group G need not have subgroups of every finite index, but it will if G' has a surjective homomorphism to the integers and we give an exact criterion for that to happen. We also give an example of a smoothly knotted n-sphere in the (n+2)-sphere for all n at le…

Study of infinitesimal rigidity in hyperbolic manifolds.

We say a knot $k$ in the 3-sphere $\mathbb S^3$ has {\it Property $IE$} if the infinite cyclic cover of the knot exterior embeds into $\mathbb S^3$. Clearly all fibred knots have Property $IE$. There are infinitely many non-fibred knots with Property $IE$ and infinitely many non-fibred knots without property $IE$. Both…

The Weil conjecture is a delightful theorem for algebraic varieties on finite fields and an important model for dynamical zeta functions. In this paper, we prove a functional equation of Lefschetz zeta functions for infinite cyclic coverings which is analogous to the Weil conjecture. Applying this functional equation t…

Given a TQFT in dimension d+1, and an infinite cyclic covering of a closed (d+1)-dimensional manifold M, we define an invariant taking values in a strong shift equivalence class of matrices. The notion of strong shift equivalence originated in R. Williams' work in symbolic dynamics. The Turaev-Viro module associated to…

This paper uses Brin and Thickstun's theory of end reductions of non-compact 3-manifolds to study groups of covering translations of irreducible contractible open 3-manifolds W which are not homeomorphic to R^3. We associate to W an object S(W) called the simplicial complex of minimal R^2-irreducible end reductions of …

The paper studies mapping class groups of cyclic covers and their liftable counterparts.

With the $[0,1,2]$-family of cyclic triangulations we introduce a rich class of vertex-transitive triangulations of surfaces. In particular, there are infinite series of cyclic $q$-equivelar triangulations of orientable and non-orientable surfaces for every $q=3k$, $k\geq 2$, and every $q=3k+1$, $k\geq 3$. Series of cy…

Knots generating infinite subgroup bound rational homology balls.

The authors conjectured previously that a knot is nonfibered if and only if its infinite cyclic cover has uncountably many finite covers. We prove the conjecture for a class of knots that includes all knots of genus 1, using techniques from symbolic dynamics.

It is known that if any prime power branched cyclic cover of a knot in the 3-sphere is a homology sphere, then the knot has vanishing Casson-Gordon invariants. We construct infinitely many examples of (topologically) non-slice knots in the 3-sphere whose prime power branched cyclic covers are homology spheres. We show …

In this paper it is proven that if the group of covering translations of the covering space of a compact, connected, $P^2$-irreducible 3-manifold corresponding to a non-trivial, finitely-generated subgroup of its fundamental group is infinite, then either the covering space is almost compact or the subgroup is infinite…

We use Heegaard splittings to give a criterion for a tunnel number one knot manifold to be non-fibered and to have large cyclic covers. We also show that such a knot manifold (satisfying the criterion) admits infinitely many virtually Haken Dehn fillings. Using a computer, we apply this criterion to the 2 generator, no…

We give a topological interpretation of the core group invariant of a surface embedded in S^4. We show that the group is isomorphic to the free product of the fundamental group of the double branch cover of S^4 with the surface as a branched set, and the infinite cyclic group. We present a generalization for unoriented…

Algorithms compute invariants of 4-manifolds as branched covers.

Study of twisted $L^2$-Betti numbers in manifolds.

If a knot K has Seifert matrix V_K and has a prime power cyclic branched cover that is not a homology sphere, then there is an infinite family of non-concordant knots having Seifert matrix V_K.

The Novikov complex of a circle-valued Morse function is constructed algebraically from the Morse-Smale complex of the restriction to a fundamental domain of the real-valued Morse function on the pullback infinite cyclic cover.

The study finds nondegenerate harmonic 1-forms using symmetry conditions.

We study tori which are cyclic covers of the standard torus, that is, the deck transformation group of the covering map is cyclic. These covering tori can be parametrized in a natural way and we show that being cyclic is equivalent to certain arithmetic condition on these parameters. There is a natural $\mathrm{SL}(2,\…

Cyclic covers of knots uniquely determine the original knot.

The existence or non-existence of Einstein metrics on 4-manifolds with non-trivial fundamental group and the relation with the underlying differential structure are analyzed. For most points $(n,m)$ in a large region of the integer lattice, the manifold $n\mathbb C \mathbb P^2\#m \overline{\mathbb C \mathbb P^2}$ is sh…

In this paper we study the connections between cyclic presentations of groups and branched cyclic coverings of (1,1)-knots. In particular, we prove that every n-fold strongly-cyclic branched covering of a (1,1)-knot admits a cyclic presentation for the fundamental group encoded by a Heegaard diagram of genus n.

New examples show transverse knots are determined by their branched covers.

We study the connections among the mapping class group of the twice punctured torus, the cyclic branched coverings of (1,1)-knots and the cyclic presentations of groups. We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the n-fold strongly-cyclic branched coverings of (1,1)-knots, thro…

Consider the cyclic group C_2 of order two acting by complex-conjugation on the unit circle S^1. The main result is that a finitely dominated manifold W of dimension > 4 admits a cocompact, free, discontinuous action by the infinite dihedral group D_\infty if and only if W is the infinite cyclic cover of a free C_2-man…

For any knot, the following are equivalent. (1) The infinite cyclic cover has uncountably many finite covers; (2) there exists a finite-image representation of the knot group for which the twisted Alexander polynomial vanishes; (3) the knot group admits a finite-image representation such that the image of the fundament…

We show that, for any prime p, a knot K in the 3-sphere is determined by its p-fold cyclic unbranched covering. We also investigate when the m-fold cyclic unbranched covering of a knot coincides with the n-fold cyclic unbranched covering of another knot, for different coprime integers m and n.

We discuss 3-manifolds which are cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere, branched over 2-bridge knots and links. Different descriptions of these manifolds are presented: polyhedral, Heegaard diagram, Dehn surgery and coloured graph constructions. Using these descriptions, we give presentations for their fundamental groups, w…

Given a 3-manifold M with no spherical boundary components, and a primitive class φin H^1(M;Z), we show that the following are equivalent: (1) φis a fibered class, (2) the rank gradient of (M,φ) is zero, (3) the Heegaard gradient of (M,φ) is zero.

The paper studies cyclic covers of rational surfaces and their Hodge structures.

This paper introduces a new method to create mod m almost classical links from virtual knots.

An irreducible open 3-manifold $W$ is {\bf R}$^2$-irreducible if every proper plane in $W$ splits off a halfspace. In this paper it is shown that if such a $W$ is the universal cover of a connected, {\bf P}$^2$-irreducible open 3-manifold $M$ with finitely generated fundamental group, then either $W$ is homeomorphic to…

Study on pretzel knots showing cyclic branched covers are L-spaces.

Computes constants for cyclic covers of translation surfaces.

We study the de Rham complex on a smooth manifold with a periodic end modeled on an infinite cyclic cover X' \to X. The completion of this complex in exponentially weighted L^2-norms is Fredholm for all but finitely many exceptional weights determined by the eigenvalues of the covering translation map H_*(X') \to H_*(X…

Strongly-cyclic branched coverings of knots are studied by using their (g,1)-decompositions. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of such coverings are obtained. It is also shown that their fundamental groups admit geometric g-words cyclic presentations.

In this paper we show that all 3-manifolds of a family introduced by M. J. Dunwoody are cyclic coverings of lens spaces (eventually $\bf S^3$), branched over genus one 1-bridge knots. As a consequence, we give a positive answer to the Dunwoody conjecture that all the elements of a wide subclass are cyclic coverings of …

We show that the nonzero roots of the torsion polynomials associated to the infinite cyclic covers of a given compact, connected, orientable 3-manifold M are contained in a compact part of the complex plane a priori determined by M. This result is applied to prove that when M is closed, it dominates at most finitely ma…

We prove that a prime knot K is not determined by its p-fold cyclic branched cover for at most two odd primes p. Moreover, we show that for a given odd prime p, the p-fold cyclic branched cover of a prime knot K is the p-fold cyclic branched cover of at most one more knot K' non equivalent to K. To prove the main theor…

The reduced Burau representation $V_n$ of the braid group $B_n$ is obtained from the action of $B_n$ on the homology of an infinite cyclic cover of the $n$-punctured disc. In this note, we calculate $H_*(B_n;V_n)$ as a module over the Laurent polynomial ring $\mathbb{Q}[t,t^{-1}]$.

The paper proves that rational concordance of double twist knots is reciprocal.

We give a formula of 3-dimensional invariant for a cyclic contact branched covering of the standard contact S^{3}.

Study surfaces in 4-manifolds with cyclic fundamental group.

In this paper we show that periodic Takahashi 3-manifolds are cyclic coverings of the connected sum of two lens spaces (possibly cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere), branched over knots. When the base space is a 3-sphere, we prove that the associated branching set is a two-bridge knot of genus one, and we determine its t…