Related papers: Shape Theory
Ren{\'e} Thom discovered several refined topological notions in the writings of Aristotle, especially the biological. More generally, he considered that some of the assertions of the Greek philosophers have a definite topological content,…
What is the shape of the Universe? Is it finite or infinite ? Is space multi-connected to create ghost images of faraway cosmic sources? After a "dark age" period, the field of cosmic topology has now become one of the major concerns in…
In the 1930's, Tarski introduced his plank problem at a time when the field discrete geometry was about to born. It is quite remarkable that Tarski's question and its variants continue to generate interest in the geometric as well as…
In [1] we introduced the concept of structured space, which is a topological space that locally resembles some algebraic structures. In [2] we proceeded the study of these spaces, developing two cohomology theories. The aim of this paper is…
We introduce and develop fine shape, which has a very simple definition and aims to supersede all previously known shape theories for metrizable spaces. The problem with known shape theories of metrizable spaces is illustrated by the…
Based on Morse theory for the energy functional on path spaces we develop a deformation theory for mapping spaces of spheres into orthogonal groups. This is used to show that these mapping spaces are weakly homotopy equivalent, in a stable…
The immensely fruitful concept of Grothendieck topology or covering issued from the efforts of algebraic geometers to study "sheaf-like" objects defined on categories more general than the lattice of open sets on a topological space. In the…
We propose a measure of shape which is appropriate for the study of a complicated geometric structure, defined using the topology of neighborhoods of the structure. One aspect of this measure gives a new notion of fractal dimension. We…
Polyfold theory was developed by Hofer-Wysocki-Zehnder by finding commonalities in the analytic framework for a variety of geometric elliptic PDEs, in particular moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves. It aims to systematically address…
The UK has a long-established reputation for excellence in research across a broad range of fields, but in recent years, there has been greater emphasis on STEM investment and greater recognition of the UK's success in STEM. This paper…
String theory has transformed our understanding of geometry, topology and spacetime. Thus, for this special issue of Foundations of Physics commemorating "Forty Years of String Theory", it seems appropriate to step back and ask what we do…
Shape Dynamics is a gauge theory based on spatial diffeomorphism- and Weyl-invariance which is locally indistinguishable form classical General Relativity. If taken seriously, it suggests that the spacetime--geometry picture that underlies…
Scientists use a mathematical subject called 'topology' to study the shapes of objects. An important part of topology is counting the numbers of pieces and holes in objects, and people use this information to group objects into different…
Since it first emerged in Wijsman's seminal work [29], the Wijsman topology has been intensively studied in the past 50 years. In particular, topological properties of Wijsman hyperspaces, relationships between the Wijsman topology and…
This survey article, in honor of G. Tian's 60th birthday, is inspired by R. Pandharipande's 2002 note highlighting research directions central to Gromov-Witten theory in algebraic geometry and by G. Tian's complex-geometric perspective on…
The global shape (topology) of the Universe is not derivable from General Relativity but should be determined by observations. Here we propose a method for estimation of this shape using patterns of fundamental physical parameters, for…
We review the notion of shape tensor of an embedded manifold, which efficiently combines intrinsic and extrinsic geometry, and allows for intuitive understanding of some basic concepts of classical differential geometry, such as parallel…
This survey/expository article covers a variety of topics related to the "topology at infinity" of noncompact manifolds and complexes. In manifold topology and geometric group theory, the most important noncompact spaces are often…
A topological shape analysis is proposed and utilized to learn concepts that reflect shape commonalities. Our approach is two-fold: i) a spatial topology analysis of point cloud segment constellations within objects. Therein constellations…
This thesis consists of two parts, connected by one central theme: the dynamics of the "shape of space". The first part of the thesis concerns the construction of a theory of gravity dynamically equivalent to general relativity (GR) in 3+1…