arXiv research

Study on deformations of trivial character in SL_2(C) for groups.

Associated to a differential character is an integral cohomology class, referred to as the characteristic class, and a closed differential form, referred to as the curvature. The characteristic class and curvature are equal in de Rham cohomology, and this is encoded in a commutative square. In the Hopkins--Singer model…

We introduce certain relative differential characters which we call Cheeger-Chern-Simons characters. These combine the well-known Cheeger-Simons characters with Chern-Simons forms. In the same way as the Cheeger-Simons characters generalize Chern-Simons invariants of oriented closed manifolds, the Cheeger-Chern-Simons …

New proof shows almost all surface group actions are dense.

Given a hyperbolic knot $K$ and any $n\geq 2$ the abelian representations and the holonomy representation each give rise to an $(n-1)$-dimensional component in the $\operatorname{SL}(n,\Bbb{C})$-character variety. A component of the $\operatorname{SL}(n,\Bbb{C})$-character variety of dimension $\geq n$ is called high-d…

Study character varieties of tangles to map immersed curves in the pillowcase.

Let $X$ be a complex toric Fano $n$-fold and ${\cal N}(T)$ the normalizer of a maximal torus $T$ in the group of biholomorphic authomorphisms $Aut(X)$. We call $X$ {\em symmetric} if the trivial character is a single ${\cal N}(T)$-invariant algebraic character of $T$. Using an invariant $α_G(X)$ introduced by Tian, we …

This paper proves a theorem about Dehn surgery using a new theorem about PSL(2, C) character varieties. Confirming a conjecture of Boyer and Zhang, this paper shows that a small hyperbolic knot in a homotopy sphere having a non-trivial cyclic slope r has an incompressible surface with non-integer boundary slope strictl…

We classify Dehn surgeries on (p,q,r) pretzel knots that result in a manifold of finite fundamental group. The only hyperbolic pretzel knots that admit non-trivial finite surgeries are (-2,3,7) and (-2,3,9). Agol and Lackenby's 6-theorem reduces the argument to knots with small indices p,q,r. We treat these using the C…

Let h^{*} be a multiplicative cohomology theory, h_{*} its dual homology theory and \hat{h}^{*} a differential refinement. We first construct the natural pairing between h_{*} and the flat part of \hat{h}^{*}, generalizing the holonomy of a flat Deligne cohomology class. Then, in order to generalize the holonomy of any…

Study tangle invariants using pillowcase Fukaya category and character varieties.

We give an extension of Fox's formula of the Alexander polynomial for double branched covers over the three-sphere. Our formula provides the Reidemeister torsion of a double branched cover along a knot for a non-trivial one dimensional representation by the product of two factors derived from the knot group. One of the…

The paper studies neck-pinching of CP1-structures on surfaces, describing their limits.

For any compact and connected Lie group $G$ and any free abelian or free nilpotent group $Γ$ , we determine the cohomology of the path component of the trivial representation of the representation space (character variety) $Rep(Γ,G)_1$, with coefficients in a field $F$ with ${char} (F)$ either 0 or relatively prime to …

We determine the action of the Torelli group on the equivariant cohomology of the space of flat SL(2,C) connections on a closed Riemann surface. We show that the trivial part of the action contains the equivariant cohomology of the even component of the space of flat PSL(2,C) connections. The non-trivial part consists …

This paper gives examples of hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose SL(2,C) character varieties have ideal points whose associated roots of unity are not 1 or -1. This answers a question of Cooper, Culler, Gillet, Long, and Shalen as to whether roots of unity other than 1 and -1 occur.

Develops method to compute Chern-Simons potentials from higher-dimensional Pontryagin densities.

We show that the first Johnson subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface S of genus greater than one acts ergodically on the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of S in SU_2. Our proof relies on a local description of the latter space around the trivial representation and on the Taylor expan…

We describe the moduli space of stable rank 2 parabolic bundles over an elliptic curve with 3 marked points.

New Thurston norm defined for a specific type of groups using $L^2$-invariants.

The colored HOMFLY polynomials, which describe Wilson loop averages in Chern-Simons theory, possess an especially simple representation for torus knots, which begins from quantum R-matrix and ends up with a trivially-looking split W representation familiar from character calculus applications to matrix models and Hurwi…

We construct a new family, indexed by the odd integers $N\geq 1$, of $(2+1)$-dimensional quantum field theories called {\it quantum hyperbolic field theories} (QHFT), and we study its main structural properties. The QHFT are defined for (marked) $(2+1)$-bordisms supported by compact oriented 3-manifolds $Y$ with a prop…

We describe a method to compute the Culler-Shalen seminorms of a knot, using the (-3,3,4) pretzel knot as an illustrative example. We deduce that the SL2(C)-character variety of this knot consists of three algebraic curves and that it admits no non-trivial cyclic or finite surgeries. We also summarize similar results f…

New invariants for families of flat connections constructed using fiber integration.

We describe a construction of geometric U-folds compatible with a non-trivial extension of the global formulation of four-dimensional extended supergravity on a differentiable spin manifold. The topology of geometric U-folds depends on certain flat fiber bundles which encode how supergravity fields are globally glued t…

Sequences of Hitchin representations on surfaces are studied to describe their limits on trees.

We use Chern-Weil theory for Hermitian holomorphic vector bundles with canonical connections for explicit computation of the Chern forms of trivial bundles with special non-diagonal Hermitian metrics. We prove that every del-dellbar exact real form of the type (k,k) on an n-dimensional complex manifold X arises as a di…

We introduce explicit holonomy perturbations of the Chern-Simons functional on a 3-ball containing a pair of unknotted arcs. These perturbations give us a concrete local method for making the moduli spaces of flat singular SO(3) connections relevant to Kronheimer and Mrowka's singular instanton knot homology non-degene…

The theory of differential characters is developed completely from a de Rham - Federer viewpoint. Characters are defined as equivalence classes of special currents, called sparks, which appear naturally in the theory of singular connections. There are many different spaces of currents which yield the character groups. …

A stroke-based method reconstructs characters from noisy images.

Character scheme of small Seifert 3-manifolds is reduced if and only if no exceptional abelian character exists.

New knot homology theory from symplectic geometry.

Quantum character varieties unify four construction methods.

We show that for any knot there exist only finitely many irreducible metabelian characters in the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-character variety of the knot group, and the number is given explicitly by using the determinant of the knot. Then it turns out that for any 2-bridge knot a section of the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-character va…

Study of orbifold Chern character using superconnections.

Character varieties get a natural Poisson structure.

In this paper, we give a quantum interpretation of the Bismut-Chern character form (the loop space lifting of the Chern character form) as well as the Chern character form associated to a complex vector bundle with connection over a smooth manifold in the framework of supersymmetric quantum field theories developed by …

Study shows how certain knots and tori are detected by ideal points in character varieties.

Study SL(2,C) character schemes for finitely generated groups.

Character variety of Borromean link solved, Alexander polynomial formula found.

Character varieties of 2-bridge knots and links explained using Farey recursion.

Computes dimensions of representation and character varieties for 2 and 3-dimensional orbifolds.

Paper generates personalized fonts from a few characters.

We study some basic properties of the variety of characters in PSL(2,C) of a finitely generated group. In particular we give an interpretation of its points as characters of representations. We construct 3-manifolds whose variety of characters has arbitrarily many components that do not lift to SL(2,C). We also study t…

Study of quantum decorated character stacks and their quantizations.

Let K be a knot in an integral homology 3-sphere and let B denote the 2-fold branched cover of the integral homology sphere branched along K. We construct a map from the slice of characters with trace free along meridians in the SL(2, C)-character variety of the knot exterior to the SL(2, C)-character variety of 2-fold…

Study character varieties of hyperbolic 3-manifolds using bundle methods.

Finite automorphisms of SL(2,C) character varieties identified.