Related papers: The Topological Complexity of a Surface

Branch points of a real 2-surface S in a 4-manifold M generalize the branch points of complex curves in complex surfaces: for example, they can occur as singularities of minimal surfaces. We investigate such a branch point p when S is…

Various curve complexes with vertices representing multicurves on a surface $S$ have been defined, for example [3], [4] and [8]. The homology curve complex $\mathcal{HC}(S,\alpha)$ defined in [7] is one such complex, with vertices…

Let $S$ be a connected orientable surface of finite topological type. We prove that there is an exhaustion of the curve complex $\mathcal{C}(S)$ by a sequence of finite rigid sets.

Let $p: S\to S_g$ be a finite covering of an orientable closed surface of genus $g$. We prove that, for $g\geq 3$, the rational homology group $H_1(S;{\mathbb Q})$ is generated by cycles supported on simple closed curves $\gamma\subset S$…

We prove that closed surfaces of all topological types, except for the non-orientable odd-genus ones, can be minimally embedded in the Riemannian product of a sphere and a circle of arbitrary radius. We illustrate it by obtaining some…

Suppose $S_{1}$ and $S_{2}$ are orientable surfaces of finite topological type such that $S_{1}$ has genus at least $3$ and the complexity of $S_{1}$ is an upper bound of the complexity of $S_{2}$. Let $\varphi : \mathcal{C}(S_{1})…

Scharlemann and Thompson define the width of a 3-manifold M as a notion of complexity based on the topology of M. Their original definition had the property that the adjacency relation on handles gave a linear order on handles, but here we…

We say a graph has property $\mathcal{P}_{g,p}$ when it is an induced subgraph of the curve graph of a surface of genus $g$ with $p$ punctures. Two well-known graph invariants, the chromatic and clique numbers, can provide obstructions to…

Topological complexity is a numerical homotopy invariant that measures the instability of motion planning in a space. To study the topological complexity of non-simply connected spaces, Costa and Farber introduced a cohomology class whose…

Let $M$ be a Riemann surface which admits an exhaustion by open subsets $M_j$ each of which is biholomorphic to a fixed domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{C}$. We describe $M$ in terms of $\Omega$ under various assumptions on the boundary…

We provide an upper bound on the topological complexity of twisted products. We use it to give an estimate $$TC(X)\le TC(\pi_1(X))+\dim X$$ of the topological complexity of a space in terms of its dimension and the complexity of its…

A noncompact (oriented) surface satisfies the condition $(\star)$ if their isolated ends are ''accumulated by genus''. We show that every surface satisfying this condition is homeomorfic to the leaf of a minimal codimension one foliation on…

In this work, we show that, for any simply-connected elliptic space $S$ admitting a pure minimal Sullivan model with a differential of constant length, we have ${\rm TC}_0(S)\leq 2{\rm cat}_0(S)+\chi_{\pi}(S)$ where $\chi_{\pi}(S)$ is the…

A topological invariant of a polynomial map $p:X\to B$ from a complex surface containing a curve $C\subset X$ to a one-dimensional base is given by a rational second homology class in the compactification of the moduli space of genus $g$…

We investigate the computational complexity of some problems in three-dimensional topology and geometry. We show that the problem of determining a bound on the genus of a knot in a 3-manifold, is NP-complete. Using similar ideas, we show…

The topological (resp. geodesic) complexity of a topological (resp. metric) space is roughly the smallest number of continuous rules required to choose paths (resp. shortest paths) between any points of the space. We prove that the geodesic…

Topological complexity was first introduced in 2003 by Michael Farber as a homotopy invariant for a connected topological space X, denoted by TC(X). Although the invariant is defined in terms of elementary homotopy theory using well-known…

We establish the existence of a non-trivial, branched immersion of a closed Riemann surface $\Sigma$ with constant mean curvature (CMC) $H$ into any closed, orientable 3-manifold $\mathcal{M}$, for almost every prescribed value of $H$. The…

If M is a closed simple 3-manifold whose fundamental group contains a genus-g surface group for some g>1, and if the dimension of H_1(M;Z_2) is at least max(3g-1,6), we show that M contains a closed, incompressible surface of genus at most…

We present a variety of geometrical and combinatorial tools that are used in the study of geometric structures on surfaces: volume, contact, symplectic, complex and almost complex structures. We start with a series of local rigidity results…