Related papers: Taut fillings
We study how many copies of a graph $F$ that another graph $G$ with a given number of cliques is guaranteed to have. For example, one of our main results states that for all $t\ge 2$, if $G$ is an $n$ vertex graph with $kn^{3/2}$ triangles…
A new lower bound on the complexity of a 3-manifold is given using the Z2-Thurston norm. This bound is shown to be sharp, and the minimal triangulations realising it are characterised using normal surfaces consisting entirely of…
We investigate a PL topology question: which circle bundles can be triangulated over a given triangulation of the base? The question got a simple answer emphasizing the role of minimal triangulations encoded by local systems of circular…
Given a pair of filling curves $\alpha, \beta$ on a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, we explicitly compute the mapping classes realizing the minimal dilatation over all the pseudo-Anosov maps given by the Thurston construction on…
I discuss the use of spinors in the construction of spin-foam models, in particular the form of the closure and simplicity constraints for triangles that are space-like, i.e. with (area)$^2=\half S^{IJ}S_{IJ}>0$, regardless of whether they…
Given a compact orientable surface $\Sigma$, let $\Cal S(\Sigma)$ be the set of isotopy classes of essential simple loops on $\Sigma$. We determine a complete set of relations for a function from $\Cal S(\Sigma)$ to $\bold Z$ to be a…
We construct and study a new class $\mathscr{M}=\{\mathscr{M}_n\}_{n\ge 4}$ of compact hyperbolic $3$-manifolds with totally geodesic boundary. The members of $\mathscr{M}_n$ are defined via triples of pairwise compatible Eulerian cycles in…
In 1981, Bermond and Thomassen conjectured that for any positive integer $k$, every digraph with minimum out-degree at least $2k-1$ admits $k$ vertex-disjoint directed cycles. In this short paper, we verify the Bermond-Thomassen conjecture…
We establish an integral-geometric formula for minimal two-spheres inside homogeneous three-spheres, and use it to provide a characterisation of each homogeneous metric on the three-dimensional real projective space as the unique metric…
We study the 3-dimensional combinatorial Yamabe flow in hyperbolic background geometry. For a triangulation of a 3-manifold, we prove that if the number of tetrahedra incident to each vertex is at least 23, then there exist real or virtual…
This paper illustrates a computational approach to Culler-Morgan-Shalen theory using ideal triangulations, spun-normal surfaces and tropical geometry. Certain affine algebraic sets associated to the Whitehead link complement as well as…
We prove that every $n$ vertex linear triple system with $m$ edges has at least $m^6/n^7$ copies of a pentagon, provided $m>100 \, n^{3/2}$. This provides the first nontrivial bound for a question posed by Jiang and Yepremyan. More…
A filling Dehn sphere $\Sigma$ in a closed 3-manifold $M$ is a sphere transversely immersed in $M$ that defines a cell decomposition of $M$. Every closed 3-manifold has a filling Dehn sphere. The Montesinos complexity of a $3$-manifold $M$…
If $T$ is an $n$-vertex tournament with a given number of $3$-cycles, what can be said about the number of its $4$-cycles? The most interesting range of this problem is where $T$ is assumed to have $c\cdot n^3$ cyclic triples for some $c>0$…
We define a 2-normal surface to be one which intersects every 3-simplex of a triangulated 3-manifold in normal triangles and quadrilaterals, with one or two exceptions. The possible exceptions are a pair of octagons, a pair of unknotted…
A famous conjecture of Tuza \cite{tuza} is that the minimal number of edges needed to cover all triangles in a graph is at most twice the maximal number of edge-disjoint triangles. We propose a wider setting for this conjecture. For a…
Every element in the first cohomology group of a 3--manifold is dual to embedded surfaces. The Thurston norm measures the minimal `complexity' of such surfaces. For instance the Thurston norm of a knot complement determines the genus of the…
Extending work of Kapouleas and Yang, for any integers $N \geq 2$, $k, \ell \geq 1$, and $m$ sufficiently large, we apply gluing methods to construct in the round $3$-sphere a closed embedded minimal surface that has genus $k\ell…
Tuza conjectured that for every graph $G$, the maximum size $\nu$ of a set of edge-disjoint triangles and minimum size $\tau$ of a set of edges meeting all triangles satisfy $\tau \leq 2\nu$. We consider an edge-weighted version of this…
Motivated by modern applications like image processing and wireless sensor networks, we consider a variation of the famous Kepler Conjecture. Given any infinite set of unit balls covering the whole space, we want to know the optimal (lim…