Related papers: Low-genus primitive monodromy groups with a nonuni…

Since the set of volumes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds is well ordered, for each fixed g there is a genus-g surface bundle over the circle of minimal volume. Here, we introduce an explicit family of genus-g bundles which we conjecture are the…

In this paper, we consider a closed Riemannian manifold $M^{n+1}$ with dimension $3\leq n+1\leq 7$, and a compact Lie group $G$ acting as isometries on $M$ with cohomogeneity at least $3$. After adapting the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory to…

We study several geometric and group theoretical problems related to Kodaira fibrations, to more general families of Riemann surfaces, and to surface-by-surface groups. First we provide constraints on Kodaira fibrations that fiber in more…

We define the cover number of a graph $G$ by a graph class $\mathcal P$ as the minimum number of graphs of class $\mathcal P$ required to cover the edge set of $G$. Taking inspiration from a paper by Harary, Hsu and Miller, we find an exact…

Let X be a closed surface of genus two embedded in the 3-sphere. Then X inherits a metric and an orientation, which give an almost complex structure, which automatically integrates to a genuine complex structure, making X a Riemann surface.…

If the group of a 2-knot group $K$ has an abelian normal subgroup of rank $\geq1$ which is not finitely generated then either $K$ has no minimal Seifert hypersurface or $K$ is topologically equivalent to Example 10 of Ralph Fox's``{\it A…

Let $X$ be a compact Riemann surface of genus $g\geq 2$. A cyclic subgroup of prime order $p$ of $Aut(X)$ is called properly $(p,h)$-gonal if it has a fixed point and the quotient surface has genus $h$. We show that if $p>6h+6$, then a…

Let $S_g$ be the closed orientable surface of genus $g \geq 2$, and let $\mathrm{Mod}(S_g)$ be the mapping class group of $S_g$. Let $A_n$ denote the alternating group on $n$ letters. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions under…

Let $G$ be a finite permutation group acting on $\Omega$. A base for $G$ is a subset $B \subseteq \Omega$ such that the pointwise stabilizer $G_{(B)}$ is the identity. The base size of $G$, denoted by $b(G)$, is the cardinality of the…

In 2018, M. Chu and S. Tillmann gave a lower bound for the trisection genus of a closed 4-manifold in terms of the Euler characteristic of $M$ and the rank of its fundamental group. We show that given a group $G$, there exist a 4-manifold…

We prove that if $G$ is an abelian group and $H_1x_1,\dots,H_{k}x_k$ is an irredundant (minimal) cover of $G$ with cosets, then $$|G:\bigcap_{i=1}^{k}H_{i}|=2^{O(k)}.$$ This bound is the best possible up to the constant hidden in the…

Let $G$ be a collineation group of a thick finite generalised hexagon or generalised octagon $\Gamma$. If $G$ acts primitively on the points of $\Gamma$, then a recent result of Bamberg et al. shows that $G$ must be an almost simple group…

A base B for a finite permutation group G acting on a set X is a subset of X with the property that only the identity of G can fix every point of B. We prove that a primitive diagonal group G has a base of size 2 unless the top group of G…

This paper investigates the relationship between strata of abelian differentials and various mapping class groups afforded by means of the topological monodromy representation. Building off of prior work of the authors, we show that the…

Let $M$ be a closed, orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold and $\phi$ a homomorphism of its fundamental group onto $\mathbb{Z}$ that is not induced by a fibration over the circle. For each natural number $n$ we give an explicit lower bound,…

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 consider the subspace of the homology of a covering space spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. Our main result is the existence of unbranched covers of surfaces where this is a proper subspace. More generally, for a fixed finite…

Given a finite non-cyclic group $G$, call $\sigma(G)$ the least number of proper subgroups of $G$ needed to cover $G$. In this paper we give lower and upper bounds for $\sigma(G)$ for $G$ a group with a unique minimal normal subgroup $N$…

I describe the monodromy of smooth hypersurfaces $X$ of high degree in a fixed smooth variety $Y$ containing a fixed subvariety $W$ of $Y$. The cohomology of $X$ in middle degree spanned by the pull-back of the cohomology of $Y$ and by the…

Sormani and Wei proved in 2004 that a compact geodesic space has a categorical universal cover if and only if its covering/critical spectrum is finite. We add to this several equivalent conditions pertaining to the geometry and topology of…