Related papers: Virtual Betti numbers of mapping tori of 3-manifol…

In this note, we compute the virtual first Betti numbers of 4-manifolds fibering over $S^1$ with prime fiber. As an application, we show that if such a manifold is symplectic with nonpositive Kodaira dimension, then the fiber itself is a…

We prove that a closed arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifold with positive first betti number has virtually infinite first betti number.

We show that if a group G is finitely presented and nilpotent-by-abelian-by-finite, then there is an upper bound on the first betti number of M as M runs through all subgroups of finite index in G.

This paper grew out of an attempt to find a suitable finite sheeted covering of an aspherical 3-manifold so that the cover either has infinite or trivial first homology group. With this motivation we define a new class of groups. These…

We observe a criterion for groups to have vanishing virtual first Betti number and use it to give infinitely many examples of torsion-free, finitely generated, residually finite groups which aren't virtually diffuse. This answers a question…

This is a continuation of an earlier preprint (math.GT/0209121) under the same title. These papers grew out of an attempt to find a suitable finite sheeted covering of an aspherical 3-manifold so that the cover either has infinite or…

We show that if M is a surface bundle over S^1 with fiber of genus 2, then for any integer n, M has a finite cover tilde(M) with b_1(tilde(M)) > n. A corollary is that M can be geometrized using only the `non-fiber' case of Thurston's…

The virtual Betti number conjecture states that any hyperbolic three-manifold has a finite cover with positive first Betti number. We show that this would follow if it were known that the derived series of the fundamental group $G$ of a…

If $M$ is a compact 3-manifold whose first betti number is 1, and $N$ is a compact 3-manifold such that $\pi_1N$ and $\pi_1M$ have the same finite quotients, then $M$ fibres over the circle if and only if $N$ does. We prove that groups of…

We show that the first $L^2$-betti number of a finitely generated residually finite group can be estimated from below by using ordinary first betti numbers of finite index normal subgroups. As an application we construct a finitely…

It is well-known that random groups with at least as many relators as generators have vanishing first betti number with high probability. In this paper we extend this question and study maps from few-relators random groups to infinite…

We show that the virtual second Betti number of a finitely generated, residually free group $G$ is finite if and only if $G$ is either free, free abelian or the fundamental group of a closed surface. We also prove a similar statement in…

The cut number of a manifold M, c(M), is the largest number of disjoint two-sided hypersurfaces in M which do not separate M. Equivalently, it is the largest rank of a free group being an epimorphic image of pi_1(M). We investigate the…

In this paper we construct explicit examples of both closed and non-compact finite volume hyperbolic manifolds which provide counterexamples to the conjecture that the co-rank of a 3-manifold group (also known as the cut number) is bounded…

We study torus bundles with affine structure groups. First, we establish a rigidity result under constraints on the first Betti numbers: If $ \text{b}_{1}(M)-\text{b}_{1}(N)=\dim M-\dim N $ holds for a torus bundle $M$ with an affine…

Let $(M,d,\mathfrak{m})$ be a noncompact $\texttt{RCD}(0,N)$ space with $N\in\mathbb{N}_+$ and $\text{supp}\mathfrak{m}=M$. We prove that if the first Betti number of $M$ equals $N-1$, then $(M,d,\mathfrak{m})$ is either a flat Riemannian…

Let $M$ be an open Riemannian $n$-manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature. We prove that if the first Betti number of $M$ equals $n-1$, then $M$ is flat.

We investigate the orderability properties of fundamental groups of 3-dimensional manifolds. Many 3-manifold groups support left-invariant orderings, including all compact P^2-irreducible manifolds with positive first Betti number. For…

We investigate rational homology cobordisms of 3-manifolds with non-zero first Betti number. This is motivated by the natural generalization of the slice-ribbon conjecture to multicomponent links. In particular we consider the problem of…

We give examples of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds with first Betti number 2 and 3 for which no sequence of finite abelian covering spaces increases the first Betti number. For 3-manifolds $M$ with first Betti number 2 we give a…