Related papers: Counterexamples to the simple loop conjecture in h…

In this note, we give an explicit counterexample to the simple loop conjecture for representations of surface groups into PSL(2,R). Specifically, we show that for any surface with negative Euler characteristic and genus at least 1, there…

We give a list of possibilities for surfaces of general type with $p_g=0$ having an involution $i$ such that the bicanonical map of $S$ is not composed with $i$ and $S/i$ is not rational. Some examples with $K^2=4,...,7$ are constructed as…

The simple loop conjecture for 3-manifolds states that every 2-sided immersion of a closed surface into a 3-manifold is either injective on fundamental groups or admits a compression. This can be viewed as a generalization of the Loop…

Let M be a 3-manifold admitting a strongly irreducible Heegaard surface S and f:M \to M an involution. We construct an invariant Heegaard surface for M of genus at most 8 g(S) - 7. As a consequence, given a (possibly branched) double cover…

One proves that there exists an obstruction to an open simply connected $n$-manifold of dimension $n\geq 5$ being geometrically simply connected. In particular there exist uncountably many simply connected $n$-manifolds which are not…

The Hirsch Conjecture (1957) stated that the graph of a $d$-dimensional polytope with $n$ facets cannot have (combinatorial) diameter greater than $n-d$. That is, that any two vertices of the polytope can be connected by a path of at most…

In this note we construct a closed 4-manifold having torsion-free fundamental group and whose universal covering is of macroscopic dimension 3. This yields a counterexample to Gromov's conjecture about the falling of macroscopic dimension.

Suppose $f:S\rightarrow\mathbb{P}^1$ is a surface fibration of genus $g$ with $3$ singular fibers. If two of the singular fibers are semistable, Nguyen conjectured that $f$ does not exist for $g\ge2$. However, a counterexample for $g=2$ was…

We give counterexamples to a version of the simple loop conjecture in which the target group is PSL(2,C). These examples answer a question of Minsky in the negative.

We prove the long-standing Montesinos conjecture that any closed oriented PL 4-manifold M is a simple covering of S^4 branched over a locally flat surface (cf [J M Montesinos, 4-manifolds, 3-fold covering spaces and ribbons, Trans. Amer.…

It is well known that the Eisenbud-Goto regularity conjecture is true for arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay varieties, projective curves, smooth surfaces, smooth threefolds in $\mathbb{P}^5$, and toric varieties of codimension two. After J.…

Merker conjectured that if $k \ge 2$ is an integer and $G$ a 3-connected cubic planar graph of circumference at least $k$, then the set of cycle lengths of $G$ must contain at least one element of the interval $[k, 2k+2]$. We here prove…

We prove the following dichotomy: if $n=2,3$ and $f\in C^1(\mathbb{S}^{n+1},\mathbb{S}^n)$ is not homotopic to a constant map, then there is an open set $\Omega\subset\mathbb{S}^{n+1}$ such that $\mathrm{rank}\, df=n$ on $\Omega$ and…

We utilize the obstruction theory of Galewski-Matumoto-Stern to derive equivalent formulations of the Triangulation Conjecture. For example, every closed topological manifold M^n with n > 4 can be simplicially triangulated if and only if…

Given a compact, oriented surface $S$ of finite genus and finitely many boundary components, we provide examples of finite covers $\tilde{S}$ of $S$ and non-simple closed curves $\gamma$ on $S$ which lifts to simple closed curves on…

Recently, John Franks and Michael Handel proved that, for $g\geq 3$ and $n\leq 2g-4$, every homomorphism from the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g$ to $\GL (n,\C)$ is trivial. We extend this result to $n\leq 2g-1$,…

We show that any 4-manifold admitting a $(g;k_1,k_2,0)$-trisection is an irregular 3-fold cover of the 4-sphere whose branching set is a surface in $S^4$, smoothly embedded except for one singular point which is the cone on a link. A…

A minimal counterexample to the Erd\H{o}s-Gy\'arf\'as conjecture is a graph of minimum possible order and size with minimum degree at least 3 that contains no cycle whose length is a power of 2. Markstr\"om observed that any such graph must…

Let $S_g$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$. We construct exponentially many mapping class group orbits of collections of $2g+1$ simple closed curves on $S_g$ which pairwise intersect exactly once, extending a result of the…

We prove that 1) There exist infinitely many non-trivial codimension one "thick" knots in $\mathbb{R}^5$; 2) For each closed four-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ and for each sufficiently small positive $\epsilon$ the set of isometry…