Related papers: Thurston norm via Fox calculus
A minimal presentation of the cohomology ring of the flag manifold $GL_n/B$ was given in [A. Borel, 1953]. This presentation was extended by [E. Akyildiz-A. Lascoux-P. Pragacz, 1992] to a non-minimal one for all Schubert varieties. Work of…
This paper studies the set of finite groups appearing as $\pi_1(M)/\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$, where $M$ is a closed, orientable 3-manifold and $\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$ denotes the $n$-th term of the derived series of $\pi_1(M)$. Our main result is that if…
For a harmonic map $u:M^3\to S^1$ on a closed, oriented $3$--manifold, we establish the identity $$2\pi \int_{\theta\in S^1}\chi(\Sigma_{\theta})\geq \frac{1}{2}\int_{\theta\in S^1}\int_{\Sigma_{\theta}}(|du|^{-2}|Hess(u)|^2+R_M)$$ relating…
If M is an atoroidal 3-manifold with a taut foliation, Thurston showed that pi_1(M) acts on a circle. Here, we show that some other classes of essential laminations also give rise to actions on circles. In particular, we show this for tight…
A 1930s conjecture of Hopf states that an even-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold with positive sectional curvature has positive Euler characteristic. We prove this conjecture under the additional assumption that the isometry group has…
We introduce $L^2$-Alexander torsions for 3-manifolds, which can be viewed as a generalization of the $L^2$-Alexander polynomial of Li--Zhang. We state the $L^2$-Alexander torsions for graph manifolds and we partially compute them for…
It is proved that the Heisenberg group $\operatorname*{Nil}\nolimits_{3}$ with a balanced metric, the sum of the left and right invariant metrics, splits as a Riemannian product $\mathbb{T\times Z}$, where $\mathbb{T}$ is a totally geodesic…
We construct a one-parameter family of properly embedded minimal annuli in the Heisenberg group Nil_3 endowed with a left-invariant Riemannian metric. These annuli are not rotationally invariant. This family gives a vertical half-space…
For a large class of 3-manifolds with taut foliations, we construct an action of $\pi_1(M)$ on $\mathbb{R}$ by orientation preserving homeomorphisms which captures the transverse geometry of the leaves. This action is complementary to…
We consider stable minimal surfaces of genus 1 in Euclidean space and in Riemannian manifolds. Under the condition of covering stability (all finite covers are stable) we show that a genus 1 finite total curvature minimal surface in…
Kashina, Montgomery and Ng introduced the $n$-th indicator $\nu_n(H)$ of a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra $H$ and showed that the indicators have some interesting properties such as the gauge invariance. The aim of this paper is to…
We establish a 3-manifold invariant for each finite-dimensional, involutory Hopf algebra. If the Hopf algebra is the group algebra of a group $G$, the invariant counts homomorphisms from the fundamental group of the manifold to $G$. The…
We assign to a finite $CW$-complex and an element in its first cohomology group a twisted version of the $L^2$-Euler characteristic and study its main properties. In the case of an irreducible orientable $3$-manifold with empty or toroidal…
We give a criterion on a group $\pi$ and a homomorphism $w \colon \pi \to C_2$ under which closed $4$-manifolds with fundamental group $\pi$ and orientation character $w$ are classified up to homotopy equivalence by their quadratic…
We show that the problem of tiling the Euclidean plane with a finite set of polygons (up to translation) boils down to prove the existence of zeros of a non-negative convex function defined on a finite-dimensional simplex. This function is…
This paper explores connections between Heegaard genus, minimal surfaces, and pseudo-Anosov monodromies. Fixing a pseudo-Anosov map phi and an integer n, let M_n be the 3-manifold fibered over S^1 with monodromy phi^n. JH Rubinstein showed…
We consider an oriented surface S and a cellular complex X of curves on S, defined by Hatcher and Thurston in 1980. We prove by elementary means, without Cerf theory, that the complex X is connected and simply connected. From this we derive…
We show the non-vanishing of cohomology groups of sufficiently small congruence lattices in $SL(1,D)$, where $D$ is a quaternion division algebras defined over a number field $E$ contained inside a solvable extension of a totally real…
For an oriented manifold $M$ whose dimension is less than $4$, we use the contractibility of certain complexes associated to its submanifolds to cut $M$ into simpler pieces in order to do local to global arguments. In particular, in these…
This paper presents, with explanatory details, the handle decompositions, fundamental groups and homology groups of 3-manifolds, including some knot complements. Hence, along this paper, when the word manifold appears it is implicit that…