Related papers: Closed surfaces and character varieties
We apply our earlier work on the higher-dimensional analogue of the Mumford conjecture to two questions. Inspired by work of Ebert we prove non-triviality of certain characteristic classes of bundles of smooth closed manifolds. Inspired by…
State-sum invariants for knotted curves and surfaces using quandle cohomology were introduced by Laurel Langford and the authors in math.GT/9903135 In this paper we present methods to compute the invariants and sample computations. Computer…
This paper is a brief overview of some of our recent results in collaboration with other authors. The cocycle invariants of classical knots and knotted surfaces are summarized, and some applications are presented.
Let X be a norm curve in the SL(2,C)-character variety of a knot exterior M. Let t = || b || / || a || be the ratio of the Culler-Shalen norms of two distinct non-zero classes a, b in H_1(\partial M, Z). We demonstrate that either X has…
We construct algorithms and topological invariants that allow us to distinguish the topological type of a surface, as well as functions and vector fields for their topological equivalence. In the first part (arXiv:2501.15657), we discused…
We compute quantum character varieties of arbitrary closed surfaces with boundaries and marked points. These are categorical invariants $\int_S\mathcal A$ of a surface $S$, determined by the choice of a braided tensor category $\mathcal A$,…
We construct algorithms and topological invariants that allow us to distinguish the topological type of a surface, as well as functions and vector fields for their topological equivalence. In the first part (arXiv:2501.15657), we discused…
The theory of quandle (co)homology and cocycle knot invariants is rapidly being developed. We begin with a summary of these recent advances. One such advance is the notion of a dynamical cocycle. We show how dynamical cocycles can be used…
We exploit a key result from visual psychophysics---that individuals perceive shape qualitatively---to develop the use of a geometrical/topological "invariant'' (the Morse--Smale complex) relating image structure with surface structure.…
We consider irreducible 3-manifolds M that arise as knot complements in closed 3-manifolds and that contain at most two connected strict essential surfaces. The results in the paper relate the boundary slopes of the two surfaces to their…
Let $M$ be a compact orientable 3-manifold. The set of characters of $SL_2({\mathbb C})$ representations of the fundamental group of $M$ forms a closed affine algebraic set. We show that its coordinate ring is isomorphic to a specialization…
The existence of essential closed surfaces surfaces is proven for finite coverings of 3-manifolds that are triangulated by finitely many topological ideal tetrahedra and admit a regular, negatively curved, ideal structure.
Let M be a compact, orientable, irreducible, atoroidal 3-manifold with boundary an incompressible torus. Techniques based on the characteristic submanifold theory are used to bound the intersection number of two slopes \alpha and \beta on…
We consider ruled surfaces with finite multiplicity. We study behaviors of the striction curves and the singularities of the ruled surfaces. We also give geometric meanings of invariants related to the ruled surfaces.
A Kauffman bracket on a surface is an invariant for framed links in the thickened surface, satisfying the Kauffman skein relation and multiplicative under superposition. This includes representations of the skein algebra of the surface. We…
Motivated by the L-space conjecture, we investigate various notions of order-detection of slopes on knot manifolds. These notions are designed to characterise when rational homology 3-spheres obtained by gluing compact manifolds along torus…
By studying modular invariance properties of some characteristic forms, we obtain twisted anomaly cancellation formulas. We apply these twisted cancellation formulas to study divisibilities on spin manifolds and congruences on spin$^c$…
The coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials of a knot induce regular functions of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that the function of the highest degree has a finite value at an ideal point which gives a minimal…
It is well known that there exist knots with Seifert surfaces of arbitrarily high genus. In this paper, we show the existence of infinitely many knot exteriors where each of which has longitudinal essential surfaces of any positive genus…
We present some variations on some of the main open problems on character degrees. We collect some of the methods that have proven to be very useful to work on these problems. These methods are also useful to solve certain problems on zeros…