Related papers: Finding non-orientable surfaces in 3-manifolds
We investigate constraints on embeddings of a non-orientable surface in a $4$-manifold with the homology of $M \times I$, where $M$ is a rational homology $3$-sphere. The constraints take the form of inequalities involving the genus and…
We prove that fundamental groups of non-orientable 3-manifolds have a solvable conjugacy problem, and construct an algorithm. Together with our earlier work on the conjugacy problem in groups on orientable geometrizable 3-manifolds, all…
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…
We prove that the problem of deciding whether a 2- or 3-dimensional simplicial complex embeds into $\mathbb{R}^3$ is NP-hard. Our construction also shows that deciding whether a 3-manifold with boundary tori admits an $\mathbb{S}^{3}$…
We show that the problem of deciding whether a knot in a fixed closed orientable 3-dimensional manifold bounds a surface of genus at most $g$ is in co-NP. This answers a question of Agol, Hass, and Thurston in 2002. Previously, this was…
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…
There are many fundamental algorithmic problems on triangulated 3-manifolds whose complexities are unknown. Here we study the problem of finding a taut angle structure on a 3-manifold triangulation, whose existence has implications for both…
We show that many 3-manifold groups have no nonabelian surface subgroups. For example, any link of an isolated complex surface singularity has this property. In fact, we determine the exact class of closed graph-manifolds which have no…
The Heegaard genus is a fundamental invariant of 3-manifolds. However, computing the Heegaard genus of a triangulated 3-manifold is NP-hard, and while algorithms exist, little work has been done in making such an algorithm efficient and…
Normal surface theory, a tool to represent surfaces in a triangulated 3-manifold combinatorially, is ubiquitous in computational 3-manifold theory. In this paper, we investigate a relaxed notion of normal surfaces where we remove the…
Given a nonorientable, locally flatly embedded surface in the $4$-sphere of nonorientable genus $h$, Massey showed that the normal Euler number lies in $\lbrace -2h,-2h+4,\ldots,2h-4,2h \rbrace$. We prove that every such surface with knot…
We prove that there is an algorithm which determines whether or not a given 2-polyhedron can be embedded into some integral homology 3-sphere. This is a corollary of the following main result. Let $M$ be a compact connected orientable…
We study trapped surfaces from the point of view of local isometric embedding into three-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. When a two-surface is embedded into three-dimensional Euclidean space, the problem of finding all surfaces applicable…
Some properties of non-orientable 3-manifolds are shown. The semi-group of cobordism of immersions of surfaces in such manifolds is computed and proven actually to be a group. Explicit invariants are provided.
We present and apply a method for disproving the existence of polyhedral immersions in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of certain triangulations on non-orientable surfaces. In particular, it is proved that neither of the two vertex-minimal, neighborly…
We show that the problem of determining whether a knot in the 3-sphere is non-trivial lies in NP. This is a consequence of the following more general result. The problem of determining whether the Thurston norm of a second homology class in…
For many fundamental problems in computational topology, such as unknot recognition and $3$-sphere recognition, the existence of a polynomial-time solution remains unknown. A major algorithmic tool behind some of the best known algorithms…
We present a practical algorithm to test whether a 3-manifold given by a triangulation or an ideal triangulation contains a closed essential surface. This property has important theoretical and algorithmic consequences. As a testament to…
We show that a 3-manifold containing an incompressible surface has topologically minimal surfaces of arbitrary high genus.
This paper gives sharp linear bounds on the genus of a normal surface in a triangulated compact, orientable 3--manifold in terms of the quadrilaterals in its cell decomposition---different bounds arise from varying hypotheses on the surface…