Related papers: The asphericity of random 2-dimensional complexes

Let W be a compact simply connected triangulated manifold with boundary and $K \subset W$ be a subpolyhedron. We construct an algebraic model of the rational homotopy type of the complement $W \setminus K$ out of a model of the map of pairs…

This is a survey on known results and open problems about closed aspherical manifolds, i.e., connected closed manifolds whose universal coverings are contractible. Many examples come from certain kinds of non-positive curvature conditions.…

We show that under suitable hypotheses, the second homotopy group of the coned-off space associated to a $C(9)$ cubical presentation is trivial, and use this to provide classifying spaces for proper actions for the fundamental groups of…

Let X be a 2-dimensional simplicial complex. The degree of an edge e is the number of 2-faces of X containing e. The complex X is an \epsilon-expander if the coboundary d_1(\phi) of every Z_2-valued 1-cochain \phi \in C^1(X;Z_2) satisfies…

We consider tessellations of the Euclidean $(d-1)$-sphere by $(d-2)$-dimensional great subspheres or, equivalently, tessellations of Euclidean $d$-space by hyperplanes through the origin; these we call conical tessellations. For random…

We study the polyhedral geometry of the hyperplanes orthogonal to the weights of the first and the second fundamental representations of $sl_n$ inside the dual fundamental Weyl chamber. We obtain generating functions that enumerate the…

We analyze the topology and geometry of a polyhedron of dimension 2 according to the minimum size of a cover by PL collapsible polyhedra. We provide partial characterizations of the polyhedra of dimension 2 that can be decomposed as the…

The complement of the codimension 2 complex coordinate subspace arrangement is shown to be homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres.

We study spherical tetrahedra with rational dihedral angles and rational volumes. Such tetrahedra occur in the Rational Simplex Conjecture by Cheeger and Simons, and we supply vast families, discovered by computational efforts, of positive…

Motivated by observations in physics, mirror symmetry is the concept that certain manifolds come in pairs $X$ and $Y$ such that the complex geometry on $X$ mirrors the symplectic geometry on $Y$. It allows one to deduce symplectic…

Any convex polytope whose combinatorial automorphism group has two orbits on the flags is isomorphic to one whose group of Euclidean symmetries has two orbits on the flags (equivalently, to one whose automorphism group and symmetry group…

The Zipoy-Voorhees family of static, axisymmetric vacuum solutions forms an interesting family in that it contains the Schwarzschild black hole excepting which all other members have naked singularity. We analyze some properties of the…

We show that the aspherical manifolds produced via the relative strict hyperbolization of polyhedra enjoy many group-theoretic and topological properties of open finite volume negatively pinched manifolds, including relative hyperbolicity,…

We investigate polyhedral $2k$-manifolds as subcomplexes of the boundary complex of a regular polytope. We call such a subcomplex {\it $k$-Hamiltonian} if it contains the full $k$-skeleton of the polytope. Since the case of the cube is well…

This paper contains examples of closed aspherical manifolds obtained as a by-product of recent work by the author [arXiv:math.GR/0509490] on the relative strict hyperbolization of polyhedra. The following is proved. (I) Any closed…

Using the random complexes of Linial and Meshulam, we exhibit a large family of simplicial complexes for which, whenever affinely embedded into Euclidean space, the filling areas of simplicial cycles is greatly distorted. This phenomenon…

The Whitehead asphericity problem, regarded as a problem of combinatorial group theory, asks whether any subpresentation of an aspherical group presentation is also aspherical. We give a positive answer to this question by proving that if…

We classify all closed, aspherical Riemannian manifolds M whose universal cover has indiscrete isometry group. One sample application is the theorem that any such M with word-hyperbolic fundamental group must be isometric to a negatively…

We study consequences and applications of the folklore statement that every double complex over a field decomposes into so-called squares and zigzags. This result makes questions about the associated cohomology groups and spectral sequences…

In this note we consider submersions from compact manifolds, homotopy equivalent to the Eschenburg or Bazaikin spaces of positive curvature. We show that if the submersion is nontrivial, the dimension of the base is greater than the…