arXiv research

Study self-intersections of arcs on a pair of pants, proving natural number spectrum.

The paper calculates self-intersections on a pair of pants using Bowen and Series' coding.

The entropy of geodesic currents on hyperbolic surfaces is bounded by their self-intersection number.

Sharp lower bound on fold singularities self-intersections.

Oriented closed curves on an orientable surface with boundary are described up to continuous deformation by reduced cyclic words in the generators of the fundamental group and their inverses. By self-intersection number one means the minimum number of transversal self-intersection points of representatives of the class…

Improved bounds on shortest geodesics with self-intersections on hyperbolic surfaces.

Our main point of focus is the set of closed geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces. For any fixed integer $k$, we are interested in the set of all closed geodesics with at least $k$ (but possibly more) self-intersections. Among these, we consider those of minimal length and investigate their self-intersection numbers. We pr…

We address the problem of computing bounds for the self-intersection number (the minimum number of self-intersection points) of members of a free homotopy class of curves in the doubly-punctured plane as a function of their combinatorial length L; this is the number of letters required for a minimal description of the …

We find the minimal number of self-intersections of the boundary of a surface of genus g generically immersed in the plane.

The study counts curves on a once-punctured torus with self-intersections.

Suppose a smooth planar curve $γ$ is $2π$-periodic in the $x$ direction and the length of one period is $\ell$. It is shown that if $γ$ self-intersects, then it has a segment of length $\ell- 2π$ on which it self-intersects and somewhere its curvature is at least $2π/(\ell - 2π)$. The proof involves the projection $Γ$ …

In an orientable surface with boundary, free homotopy classes of curves on surfaces are in one to one correspondence with cyclic reduced words in a set of standard generators of the fundamental group. The combinatorial length of a class is the number of letters of the corresponding word. The self-intersection of a free…

Given a hyperbolic surface $§$, a classic result of Birman and Series states that for each $K$, all complete geodesics with at most $K$ self-intersections can only pass through a certain nowhere dense, Hausdorff dimension 1 subset of $§$. We define a self-intersection function for each complete geodesic, which bounds t…

In a previous paper, we defined an operation $μ$ that generalizes Turaev's cobracket for loops on a surface. We showed that, in contrast to the cobracket, this operation gives a formula for the minimum number of self-intersections of a loop in a given free homotopy class. In this paper we consider the corresponding que…

We study mapping class group orbits of homotopy and isotopy classes of curves with self-intersections. We exhibit the asymptotics of the number of such orbits of curves with a bounded number of self-intersections, as the complexity of the surface tends to infinity. We also consider the minimal genus of a subsurface tha…

We give bounds on the number of non-simple closed curves on a negatively curved surface, given upper bounds on both length and self-intersection number. In particular, it was previously known that the number of all closed curves of length at most $L$ grows exponentially in $L$. We get exponentially tighter bounds given…

A filling curve $γ$ on a based surface $S$ determines a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism $P(γ)$ of $S$ via the process of "point-pushing along $γ$." We consider the relationship between the self-intersection number $i(γ)$ of $γ$ and the dilatation of $P(γ)$; our main result is that the dilatation is bounded between $(i(γ)+1…

The minimum number of self-intersection points for members of a free homotopy class of curves on the punctured torus is bounded above in terms of the number L of letters required for a minimal description of the class in terms of the generators of the fundamental group and their inverses: it is less than or equal to (L…

A self-transverse immersion of a smooth manifold M^{k+2} in R^{2k+2} has a double point self-intersection set which is the image of an immersion of a smooth surface, the double point self-intersection surface. We prove that this surface may have odd Euler characteristic if and only if k is congruent to 1 modulo 4 or k+…

Minimal geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces are long.

We investigate the possible self-intersection numbers for sections of surface bundles and Lefschetz fibrations over surfaces. When the fiber genus g and the base genus h are positive, we prove that the adjunction bound 2h-2 is the only universal bound on the self-intersection number of a section of any such genus g bun…

The study of smoothing arcs and curves on surfaces, proving tautness and arc length spectrum properties.

We give a lower bound on the number of non-simple closed curves on a hyperbolic surface, given upper bounds on both length and self-intersection number. In particular, we carefully show how to construct closed geodesics on pairs of pants, and give a lower bound on the number of curves in this case. The lower bound for …

This article deals with the set of closed geodesics on complete finite type hyperbolic surfaces. For any non-negative integer $k$, we consider the set of closed geodesics that self-intersect at least $k$ times, and investigate those of minimal length. The main result is that, if the surface has at least one cusp, their…

Based on Nielsen fixed point theory and Gröbner-Shirshov basis, we obtain a simple method to compute geometric intersection numbers and self-intersection geometric numbers of loops on surfaces.

We present a new explicit formula for the $m$-th Bernoulli number $B_m$, which involves two integer parameters $a$ and $n$ with $0\le a\le m\le n$. If we set $a=0$ and $n=m$, then the formula reduces to the celebrated Kronecker formula for $B_m$. We give two proofs of our formula. One is analytic and uses a certain fun…

We construct an invariant of parametrized generic real algebraic surfaces in RP^3 which generalizes the Brown invariant of immersed surfaces from smooth topology. The invariant is constructed using the self intersection, which is a real algebraic curve with points of three local characters: the intersection of two real…

Two free homotopy classes of closed curves in an orientable surface with negative Euler characteristic are said to be length equivalent if for any hyperbolic structure on the surface, the length of the geodesic in one class is equal to the length of the geodesic in the other class. We show that there are elements in th…

Machine learning predicts minimal surfaces for knots, supporting a conjecture.

In this paper, we demonstrate a relation among Seiberg-Witten invariants which arises from embedded surfaces in four-manifolds whose self-intersection number is negative. These relations, together with Taubes' basic theorems on the Seiberg-Witten invariants of symplectic manifolds, are then used to prove the symplectic…

We prove algebraic analogues of the facts that a curve on a surface with self-intersection number zero is homotopic to a cover of a simple curve, and that two simple curves on a surface with intersection number zero can be isotoped to be disjoint.

The mapping class group of a surface $§$ acts on the set of closed geodesics on $§$. This action preserves self-intersection number. In this paper, we count the orbits of curves with at most $K$ self-intersections, for each $K \geq 1$. (The case when $K=0$ is already known.) We also restrict our count to those orbits t…

Let $G = \langle A,B \rangle$ be a non-elementary two generator subgroup of the isometry group of $\mathbb{H}^2$, the hyperbolic plane. If $G$ is discrete and free and geometrically finite, its quotient is a pair of pants and in prior work we produced a formula for the number of essential self intersections (ESIs) of a…

Paper proves curves can be smoothed to reduce self-intersection by exactly 1.

The study examines elastic curves with self-intersections and their properties.

The paper provides uniform length estimates for trajectories on flat cone surfaces.

We give various estimates of the minimal number of self-intersections of a nontrivial element of the kth term of the lower central series and derived series of the fundamental group of a surface. As an application, we obtain a new topological proof of the fact that free groups and fundamental groups of closed surfaces …

In this paper we present a way of computing a lower bound for genus of any smooth representative of a homology class of positive self-intersection in a smooth four-manifold $X$ with second positive Betti number $b_2^+(X)=1$. We study the solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations on the cylindrical end manifold which is…

We show that any number of disjointly embedded 2-spheres in 4-space can be pulled apart by a link homotopy, ie, by a motion in which the 2-spheres stay disjoint but are allowed to self-intersect.

The study finds that most minimal surfaces in generic 4D manifolds intersect in complex ways.

Improved bounds on geodesic intersections on hyperbolic surfaces.

First order invariants of generic immersions of manifolds of dimension nm-1 into manifolds of dimension n(m+1)-1, m,n>1 are constructed using the geometry of self-intersections. The range of one of these invariants is related to Bernoulli numbers. As by-products some geometrically defined invariants of regular homotopy…

Generic potential primes have no self-intersections or intersections.

The paper characterizes isomorphic covers of surfaces and applies it to distinguish representations.

In the mid eighties Goldman proved an embedded curve could be isotoped to not intersect a closed geodesic if and only if their Lie bracket (as defined in that work) vanished. Goldman asked for a topological proof and about extensions of the conclusion to curves with self-intersection. Turaev, in the late eighties, aske…

Geodesics with bounded angles have zero Hausdorff dimension.

Given an orientable surface with boundary and a free homotopy class, we present a purely combinatorial algorithm which produces a representative of that homotopy class with minimal self intersection.

Let $S$ be a closed orientable hyperbolic surface, and let $\mathcal{O}(K,S)$ denote the number of mapping class group orbits of curves on $S$ with at most $K$ self-intersections. Building on work of Sapir [16], we give upper and lower bounds for $\mathcal{O}(K,S)$ which are both exponential in $\sqrt{K}$.