Related papers: An integration approach to the Toeplitz square peg…

This note is devoted to a trick which yields almost trivial proofs that certain complexes associated to topological surfaces are connected or simply connected. Applications include new proofs that the complexes of curves, separating curves,…

We consider homologically essential simple closed curves on Seifert surfaces of genus one knots in $S^3$, and in particular those that are unknotted or slice in $S^3$. We completely characterize all such curves for most twist knots: they…

The Heesch problem 'grades' polygons that fail to tile the plane in terms of the number of layers (or corollas) of copies of it that can be formed around a central unit. We study the different topology of ' walls', which we define to be…

In graph theory an interesting question is whether for a fixed choice of $p\in [0,\infty]$, all simple graphs appear as sphere-of-influence graphs in some Euclidean space with respect to the $\ell_p$ metric. The answer is affirmative for…

We prove that a pair of continuous disjoint periodic curves in $\mathbb{C}$ inscribes an isosceles trapezoid with any similarity type. The case of smooth curves can be identified with a Lagrangian intersection problem for a pair of…

Simplicial surfaces describe the incidence relations between vertices, edges and faces of triangulated 2-dimensional manifolds in a purely combinatorial way. By considering only the incidences of edges and faces, simplicial surfaces are…

We uncover some connections between the topology of a complete Riemannian surface M and the minimum number of vertices, i.e., critical points of geodesic curvature, of closed curves in M. In particular we show that the space forms with…

A canonically-embedded curve of genus $g$ is a pure 1-dimensional, non-degenerate subscheme $C$ of ${\bf P}^{g-1}$ over an algebraically closed field $k$, for which ${\cal O}_C(1) \cong \omega_C$, (the dualizing sheaf)$ and $h^0(C, {\cal…

Any smooth projective curve embeds into $\mathbb{P}^3$. More generally, any curve embeds into a rationally connected variety of dimension at least three. We prove conversely that if every curve embeds in a threefold $X$, then $X$ is…

The cyclohedron (Bott-Taubes polytope) arises both as the polyhedral realization of the poset of all cyclic bracketings of a circular word and as an essential part of the Fulton-MacPherson compactification of the configuration space of n…

We show that any ruled surface $X$ with $\chi(X) < 0$ admits infinitely many inequivalent Lefschetz pencils of fixed genus and number of base points. Our proof proceeds by building infinitely many inequivalent Lefschetz fibrations on a…

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…

This paper considers *-graphs in which all vertices have degree 4 or 6, and studies the question of calculating the genus of nonorientable surfaces into which such graphs may be embedded. In a previous paper by the authors, the problem of…

The (signed) projective cubes, as a special class of graphs closely related to the hypercubes, are on the crossroad of geometry, algebra, discrete mathematics and linear algebra. Defined as Cayley graphs on binary groups, they represent…

A classical result of von Staudt states that if eight planes osculate a twisted cubic curve and we divide them into two groups of four, then the eight vertices of the corresponding tetrahedra lie on a twisted cubic curve. In the current…

We report on the problem of the existence of complex and real algebraic curves in the plane with prescribed singularities up to analytic and topological equivalence. The question is whether, for a given positive integer $d$ and a finite…

We develop a connection between the inscribed square problem and the question of understanding relation avoiding paths in a complex vector space. Our main theorem is that a Jordan curve with no inscribed squares would have a seemingly…

We study the topological complexity, in the sense of Smale, of three enumerative problems in algebraic geometry: finding the 27 lines on cubic surfaces, the 28 bitangents and the 24 inflection points on quartic curves. In particular, we…

In this paper we consider an elementary, and largely unexplored, combinatorial problem in low-dimensional topology. Consider a real 2-dimensional compact surface $S$, and fix a number of points $F$ on its boundary. We ask: how many…

It has been noticed since around 2007 that certain enumeration problems can be solved when an analytic or algebraic curve is identified. This curve is the key to the problem. In these lectures, a few such examples are presented. One is a…