Related papers: Spheres are rare

A triangulation of a surface is \emph{irreducible} if there is no edge whose contraction produces another triangulation of the surface. We prove that every irreducible triangulation of a surface with Euler genus $g\geq1$ has at most $13g-4$…

Let M be an arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifold, such as a Bianchi manifold. We conjecture that there is a basis for the second homology of M, where each basis element is represented by a surface of `low' genus, and give evidence for this. We…

We recently found that crystallization of monodisperse hard spheres from the bulk fluid faces a much higher free energy barrier in four than in three dimensions at equivalent supersaturation, due to the increased geometrical frustration…

Complex structures can only form in a universe that allows for bound states. While this is clearly observed in three-dimensions, added degrees of freedom in a higher-dimensional space preclude the immediate assumption that binding…

Let \Delta be a (d-1)-dimensional homology sphere on n vertices with m minimal non-faces. We consider the invariant \alpha := m - (n-d) and prove that for a given value of \alpha, there are only finitely many homology spheres that cannot be…

Normal surface theory is a central tool in algorithmic three-dimensional topology, and the enumeration of vertex normal surfaces is the computational bottleneck in many important algorithms. However, it is not well understood how the number…

We establish lower bounds on the dimensions in which arithmetic groups with torsion can act on acyclic manifolds and homology spheres. The bounds rely on the existence of elementary p-groups in the groups concerned. In some cases, including…

We prove that an integral homology 3-sphere is S^3 if and only if it admits four periodic diffeomorphisms of odd prime orders whose space of orbits is S^3. As an application we show that an irreducible integral homology sphere which is not…

In this thesis, we use normal surface theory to understand certain properties of minimal triangulations of compact orientable 3-manifolds. We describe the collapsing process of normal 2-spheres and disks. Using some geometrical…

A Riemannian manifold is a called a good rational expander in dimension $i$ if every $i$-cycle bounds a rational $i+1$-chain of comparatively small volume. We construct 3-manifolds which are good expanders in all dimensions. On the other…

Given a Heegaard surface in the $3$-sphere, we show that any non-separating weak reducing pair for the surface admits a reducing sphere that separates the two disks of the pair if and only if the genus of the surface is at most $3$.

Polygon spaces have been studied extensively, and yet missing from the literature is a simple property that every polygon has: dimension. This is distinct (possibly) from the dimension of the ambient space in which the polygon lives. A…

We construct homotopically non-trivial maps from the unit m-sphere to the unit (m-1)-sphere with arbitrarily small k-dilation for each k greater than (m + 1)/2. We prove that homotopically non-trivial maps from the unit m-sphere to the unit…

This is the fifth in a series of papers giving a proof of the Kepler conjecture, which asserts that the density of a packing of congruent spheres in three dimensions is never greater than $\pi/\sqrt{18}\approx 0.74048...$. This is the…

Linear upper bounds are provided for the size of the torsion homology of negatively curved manifolds of finite volume in all dimensions $d\ne 3$. This extends a classical theorem by Gromov. In dimension $3$, as opposed to the Betti numbers,…

In terms of the number of triangles, it is known that there are more than exponentially many triangulations of surfaces, but only exponentially many triangulations of surfaces with bounded genus. In this paper we provide a first geometric…

The triangulation complexity of a closed orientable 3-manifold is the minimal number of tetrahedra in any triangulation of the manifold. The main theorem of the paper gives upper and lower bounds on the triangulation complexity of any…

Let G, a subset of O(4), act isometrically on the 3-sphere. In this article we calculate a lower bound for the diameter of the quotient spaces $S^3/G$. We find it to be ${1/2}\arccos(\frac{\tan(\frac{3 \pi}{10})}{\sqrt3})$, which is exactly…

We consider growing spheres seeded by random injection in time and space. Growth stops when two spheres meet leading eventually to a jammed state. We study the statistics of growth limited by packing theoretically in d dimensions and via…

We give an upper bound for the growth of homology torsions of finite coverings of irreducible 3-manifolds with tori boundary in terms of hyperbolic volume.