Related papers: $\partial$-reducible handle additions

Let \Delta be a (d-1)-dimensional homology sphere on n vertices with m minimal non-faces. We consider the invariant \alpha := m - (n-d) and prove that for a given value of \alpha, there are only finitely many homology spheres that cannot be…

We show that every $\alpha$-approximate minimum cut in a connected graph is the unique minimum $(S,T)$-terminal cut for some subsets $S$ and $T$ of vertices each of size at most $\lfloor2\alpha\rfloor+1$. This leads to an alternative proof…

Let N be a closed irreducible 3-manifold and assume N is not a graph manifold. We improve for all but finitely many S^1-bundles M over N the adjunction inequality for the minimal complexity of embedded surfaces. This allows us to completely…

We construct examples of fibered three-manifolds with first Betti number at least 2 and with fibered faces all of whose monodromies extend to a handlebody.

Let $M$ be a surface sum of 3-manifolds $M_1$ and $M_2$ along a bounded connected surface $F$ and $\partial_i$ be the component of $\partial M_i$ containing $F$. If $M_i$ has a high distance Heegaard splitting, then any minimal Heegaard…

We construct infinitely many manifolds admitting both strongly irreducible and weakly reducible minimal genus Heegaard splittings. Both closed manifolds and manifolds with boundary tori are constructed.

Heegaard splittings stratify 3-manifolds by complexity; only $S^3$ admits a genus-zero splitting, and only $S^3$, $S^1 \times S^2$, and lens spaces $L(p,q)$ admit genus-one splittings. In dimension four, the second author and Jeffrey Meier…

Let $\Delta$ be a $d$-dimensional normal pseudomanifold, $d \ge 3.$ A relative lower bound for the number of edges in $\Delta$ is that $g_2$ of $\Delta$ is at least $g_2$ of the link of any vertex. When this inequality is sharp $\Delta$ has…

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…

A minimal geodesic on a Riemannian manifold is a geodesic defined on $\mathbb{R}$ that lifts to a globally distance minimizing curve on the universal covering. Bangert proved that there is a lower bound for the number of geometrically…

Given an algebra $F[H]^G$ of polynomial invariants of an action of the group $G$ over the vector space $H$, a subset $S$ of $F[H]^G$ is called separating if $S$ separates all orbits that can be separated by $F[H]^G$. A minimal separating…

Let $M$ be a compact manifold of dimension at least 2. If $M$ admits a minimal homeomorphism then $M$ admits a minimal noninvertible map.

Given a subshift over an arbitrary alphabet, we construct a representation of the associated unital algebra. We describe a criteria for the faithfulness of this representation in terms of the existence of cycles with no exits. Subsequently,…

For a simplicial complex ${\mathcal C}$ denote by $\beta({\mathcal C})$ the minimal number of edges from ${\mathcal C}$ needed to cover the ground set. If ${\mathcal C}$ is a matroid then for every partition $A_1, \ldots, A_m$ of the ground…

The reassembling of a simple connected graph G = (V,E) is an abstraction of a problem arising in earlier studies of network analysis. Its simplest formulation is in two steps: (1) We cut every edge of G into two halves, thus obtaining a…

Let $(\Gamma,\gamma)$ be a crystallization of connected compact 3-manifold $M$ with $h$ boundary components. Let $\mathcal{G}(M)$ and $\mathit k (M)$ be the regular genus and gem-complexity of $M$ respectively, and let $\mathcal{G}(\partial…

We show the existence of a $4$-manifold with boundary that admits two non-diffeomorphic minimal genus relative trisections of the same $(g,k;p,b)$-type. To prove this, we introduce a simple operation that produces a trisection diagram of a…

Let $H$ be a fixed graph whose edges are colored red and blue and let $\beta \in [0,1]$. Let $I(H, \beta)$ be the (asymptotically normalized) maximum number of copies of $H$ in a large red/blue edge-colored complete graph $G$, where the…

An estimate for the genus function in circle bundles over irreducible 3-manifolds is proven. This estimate is in many cases an equality and it relates the minimal genus of the surfaces representing a given homology class with the…

Suppose a genus two handlebody is removed from a 3-manifold M and then a single meridian of the handlebody is restored. The result is a knot or link complement in M and it is natural to ask whether geometric properties of the link…