Related papers: Thin position for incompressible surfaces in 3-man…

Using the algebraic geometry method of Berenstein and Leigh for the construction of the toroidal orbifold (T^2 x T^2 x T^2) / (Z_2 x Z_2) with discrete torsion and considering local K3 surfaces, we present non-commutative aspects of the…

We give several criteria on a closed, oriented 3-manifold that will imply that it is the boundary of a (simply connected) 4-manifold that admits infinitely many distinct smooth structures. We also show that any weakly fillable contact…

3-manifolds are commonly represented as triangulations, consisting of abstract tetrahedra whose triangular faces are identified in pairs. The combinatorial sparsity of a triangulation, as measured by the treewidth of its dual graph, plays a…

For the genus-$4$ Heegaard surface in the $3$-sphere, we present a sufficient condition for a non-separating weak reducing pair to be separated by a reducing sphere for the surface. As a consequence, we reduce the connectivity problem in…

In this paper we describe a procedure for refining the given triangulation of a 3-manifold that scales the PL-metric according to a given weight function while creating no new normal surfaces. It is known that an incompressible surface $F$…

We show that a smooth embedding of a closed 3-manifold in S^3 x R can be isotoped so that every generic level divides S^3 x t into two handlebodies (i.e., is Heegaard) provided the original embedding has a unique local maximum with respect…

We present several structural results on closed, nonorientable, smooth $4$--manifolds, extending analogous results and machinery for the orientable case. We prove the existence of simplified broken Lefschetz fibrations and simplified…

Let M_1 and M_2 be compact, orientable 3-manifolds, and M the manifold obtained by gluing some component F of \bdy M_1 to some component of \bdy M_2 by a homeomorphism \phi. We show that when \phi is "sufficiently complicated" then (1) the…

We construct families of pairs of Heegaard splittings that must be stabilized several times to become equivalent. The first such pair differs only by their orientation. These are genus n splittings of a closed 3-manifold that must be…

Recently Gay and Kirby described a new decomposition of smooth closed $4$-manifolds called a trisection. This paper generalises Heegaard splittings of $3$-manifolds and trisections of $4$-manifolds to all dimensions, using triangulations as…

Thurston's hyperbolization theorem for Haken manifolds and normal surface theory yield an algorithm to determine whether or not a compact orientable 3-manifold with nonempty boundary consisting of tori admits a complete finite-volume…

The Heegaard genus g of an irreducible closed orientable 3-manifold puts a limit on the number and complexity of the pieces that arise in the Jaco-Shalen-Johannson decomposition of the manifold by its canonical tori. For example, if p of…

We consider the problem of when a closed hyperbolic surface admits a totally geodesic embedding into a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold, and in particular equivariant versions of such embeddings. In a previous paper we considered…

Thin surfaces are ubiquitous in nature, from leaves to cell membranes, and in technology, from paper to corrugated containers. Structural thinness imbues them with flexibility, the ability to easily bend under light loads, even as their…

We define combinatorial analogues of stable and unstable minimal surfaces in the setting of weighted pseudomanifolds. We prove that, under mild conditions, such combinatorial minimal surfaces always exist. We use a technique, adapted from…

We introduce Topological Offsets, a novel approach to generate manifold and self-intersection-free offset surfaces that are topologically equivalent to an offset infinitesimally close to the surface. Our approach, by construction, creates a…

In this manuscript we sharpen the lower bound on the codimension of the irreducible components of the Noether-Lefschetz locus of surfaces in projective toric threefolds given in [BG17]. We also provide a simpler proof of Theorem 4.11 in…

We construct families of manifolds that have pairs of genus $g$ Heegaard splittings that must be stabilized roughly $g$ times to become equivalent. We also show that when two unstabilized, boundary-unstabilized Heegaard splittings are…

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 show that no minimal vertex triangulation of a closed, connected, orientable 2-manifold of genus 6 admits a polyhedral embedding in R^3. We also provide examples of minimal vertex triangulations of closed, connected, orientable…