English

Topological Designs

Geometric Topology 2013-01-04 v5 Combinatorics

Abstract

We give an exponential upper and a quadratic lower bound on the number of pairwise non-isotopic simple closed curves can be placed on a closed surface of genus g such that any two of the curves intersects at most once. Although the gap is large, both bounds are the best known for large genus. In genus one and two, we solve the problem exactly. Our methods generalize to variants in which the allowed number of pairwise intersections is odd, even, or bounded, and to surfaces with boundary components.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1008.3710,
  title  = {Topological Designs},
  author = {Justin Malestein and Igor Rivin and Louis Theran},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.3710},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

14 p., 4 Figures. To appear in Geometriae Dedicata

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:03:45.950Z