Related papers: The Lifting Problem is NP Complete
In this article, we propose a new approach for describing and understanding knots and links in a 3-manifold through the use of an embedded non-orientable surface. Specifically, we define a plat-like representation based on this…
For some weighted $NP$-complete problems, checking whether a proposed solution is optimal is a non-trivial task. Such is the case for the celebrated traveling salesman problem, or the spin-glass problem in 3 dimensions. In this letter, we…
In this paper, we study stable equivalence of exotically knotted surfaces in 4-manifolds, surfaces that are topologically isotopic but not smoothly isotopic. We prove that any pair of embedded surfaces in the same homology class become…
Two fundamental objects in knot theory are the minimal genus surface and the least area surface bounded by a knot in a 3-dimensional manifold. When the knot is embedded in a general 3-manifold, the problems of finding these surfaces were…
The enumeration of normal surfaces is a key bottleneck in computational three-dimensional topology. The underlying procedure is the enumeration of admissible vertices of a high-dimensional polytope, where admissibility is a powerful but…
The maximum graph bisection problem is a well known graph partition problem. The problem has been proven to be NP-hard. In the maximum graph bisection problem it is required that the set of vertices is divided into two partition with equal…
This article is concerned with locally flatly immersed surfaces in simply-connected $4$-manifolds where the complement of the surface has fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}$. Once the genus and number of double points are fixed, we classify such…
This paper presents a selected tour through the theory and applications of lifts of convex sets. A lift of a convex set is a higher-dimensional convex set that projects onto the original set. Many convex sets have lifts that are…
A classical open problem in combinatorial geometry is to obtain tight asymptotic bounds on the maximum number of k-level vertices in an arrangement of n hyperplanes in d dimensions (vertices with exactly k of the hyperplanes passing below…
A topology is defined on the mapping class group of a compact connected orientable surface. It is shown that a notion of "genericity" on subsets of the mapping class group arises from this definition. Many plausible results follow from this…
In this paper we consider an inverse problem of determining a minimal surface embedded in a Riemannian manifold. We show under a topological condition that if $\Sigma$ is a $2$-dimensional embedded minimal surface, then the knowledge of the…
3D printing of surfaces has become an established method for prototyping and visualisation. However, surfaces often contain certain degenerations, such as self-intersecting faces or non-manifold parts, which pose problems in obtaining a 3D…
Consider a graph drawn on a surface (for example, the plane minus a finite set of obstacle points), possibly with crossings. We provide an algorithm to decide whether such a drawing can be untangled, namely, if one can slide the vertices…
We study a general family of problems that form a common generalization of classic hitting (also referred to as covering or transversal) and packing problems. An instance of X-HitPack asks: Can removing k (deletable) vertices of a graph G…
Define the 1-handle stabilization distance between two surfaces properly embedded in a fixed 4-dimensional manifold to be the minimal number of 1-handle stabilizations necessary for the surfaces to become ambiently isotopic. For every…
The K-way vertex cut problem} consists in, given a graph G, finding a subset of vertices of a given size, whose removal partitions G into the maximum number of connected components. This problem has many applications in several areas. It…
We consider general relativity with cosmological constant minimally coupled to the electromagnetic field and assume that the four-dimensional space-time manifold is a warped product of two surfaces with Lorentzian and Euclidean signature…
Let $X$ and $Y$ be finite simplicial sets (e.g. finite simplicial complexes), both equipped with a free simplicial action of a finite group $G$. Assuming that $Y$ is $d$-connected and $\dim X\le 2d$, for some $d\geq 1$, we provide an…
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…
We show that the problem of showing that a cusped 3-manifold M is not hyperbolic is in NP, assuming $S^3$-RECOGNITION is in coNP. To this end, we show that IRREDUCIBLE TOROIDAL RECOGNITION lies in NP. Along the way we unconditionally…