Related papers: Splittings of groups and intersection numbers

We study mapping class group orbits of homotopy and isotopy classes of curves with self-intersections. We exhibit the asymptotics of the number of such orbits of curves with a bounded number of self-intersections, as the complexity of the…

Two free homotopy classes of closed curves in an orientable surface with negative Euler characteristic are said to be length equivalent if for any hyperbolic structure on the surface, the length of the geodesic in one class is equal to the…

We prove two theorems about homotopies of curves on 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. We show that, for any epsilon > 0, if two simple closed curves are homotopic through curves of bounded length L, then they are also isotopic through…

We define winding numbers of regular closed curves on surfaces with a nice euclidean or hyperbolic geometry. We prove that two regular closed curves are regularly homotopic if and only if they are freely homotopic and have the same winding…

This note is devoted to a trick which yields almost trivial proofs that certain complexes associated to topological surfaces are connected or simply connected. Applications include new proofs that the complexes of curves, separating curves,…

We show that there is a collection of subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface such that the associated coset intersection complex is quasi-isometric and homotopy equivalent to the curve complex. Moreover, we prove that these two…

Given an ordered sequence of $N$-choose-2 integers, we give necessary and sufficient conditions to have an ordered collection of $N$ simple closed curves on a torus such that the algebraic pairwise intersections of those curves are the…

Over any field of characteristic $0$, we prove that the homotopy exact sequence of algebraic fundamental groups for the universal curve with unordered marked points does not split. The same nonsplitting holds for the universal hyperelliptic…

For two oriented simple closed curves on a compact orientable surface with a connected boundary we introduce a simple computation of a value in the first homology group of the surface, which detects in some cases that the geometric…

This paper presents the first purely numerical (i.e., non-algebraic) subdivision algorithm for the isotopic approximation of a simple arrangement of curves. The arrangement is "simple" in the sense that any three curves have no common…

In the mid eighties Goldman proved an embedded curve could be isotoped to not intersect a closed geodesic if and only if their Lie bracket (as defined in that work) vanished. Goldman asked for a topological proof and about extensions of the…

In this paper we will show that two surfaces of the same genus and homology class in a simply connected 4-manifold are concordant. We will show they are often topologically isotopic when their complements have cyclic fundamental group.…

The geometric intersection number of a curve on a surface is the minimal number of self-intersections of any homotopic curve, i.e. of any curve obtained by continuous deformation. Given a curve $c$ represented by a closed walk of length at…

We give necessary and sufficient topological conditions for a simple closed curve on a real rational surface to be approximable by smooth rational curves. We also study approximation by smooth rational curves with given complex…

We consider systems of simple closed curves on surfaces and their total number of intersection points, their so-called crossing number. For a fixed number of curves, we aim to minimise the crossing number. We determine the minimal crossing…

We consider various equivalence relations on the set of homotopy classes of curves on a hyperbolic surface based on topological, algebraic, and geometric structures. The purpose of this work is to determine the relationship between these…

We give an effective iterative characterization of the classes of (smooth, rational) (-1)-curves on the blowup of the projective plane at general points. Such classes are characterized as having self-intersection -1, arithmetic genus 0, and…

We consider collections of disjoint simple closed curves in a compact orientable surface which decompose the surface into pairs of pants. The isotopy classes of such curve systems form the vertices of a 2-complex, whose edges correspond to…

We study points of moderately low degree on a curve $C$ over a number field, which is embedded on a nice toric surface $S$. Recently, Smith and Vogt related the linear equivalence classes of such points to intersections of $C$ with curves…

We present a short proof of the fact that two irreducible germs of plane analytic curves are isotopic if they are equisingular, without recourse to the structure of the associated knots.