English

Super efficiency of efficient geodesics in the complex of curves

Geometric Topology 2023-05-24 v4

Abstract

We show that efficient geodesics have the strong property of "super efficiency". For any two vertices, v,wC(Sg)v , w \in \mathcal{C}(S_g), in the complex of curves of a closed oriented surface of genus g2g \geq 2 , and any efficient geodesic, v=v1,,vd=wv = v_1 , \cdots , v_{{\text d}}=w, it was previously established by Birman, Margalit and the second author (see arXiv:1408.4133) that there is an explicitly computable list of at most d(6g6){\text d}^{(6g-6)} candidates for the v1v_1 vertex. In this note we establish a bound for this computable list that is independent of d{\text d}-distance and only dependent on genus -- the super efficiency property. The proof relies on a new intersection growth inequality between intersection number of curves and their distance in the complex of curves, together with a thorough analysis of the dot graph associated with the intersection sequence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.09665,
  title  = {Super efficiency of efficient geodesics in the complex of curves},
  author = {Xifeng Jin and William W. Menasco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.09665},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

For Version 4, improved introduction in explaining new idea utilizing intersection growth function. An additional section at the end discussing how super efficient geodesics can be utilized in a distance algorithm