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Ian Agol

Publications and source records attributed to Ian Agol.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

The virtual Haken conjecture

We prove that cubulated hyperbolic groups are virtually special. The proof relies on results of Haglund and Wise which also imply that they are linear groups, and quasi-convex subgroups are separable. A consequence is that closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds have finite-sheeted Haken covers, which resolves the virtual Haken question of Waldhausen and Thurston's virtual fibering question. An appendix to this paper by Agol, Groves, and Manning proves a generalization of the main result of "Residual finiteness, QCERF and fillings of hyperbolic groups".

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arXiv2011

Presentation length and Simon's conjecture

In this paper, we show that any knot group maps onto at most finitely many knot groups. This gives an affirmative answer to a conjecture of J. Simon. We also bound the diameter of a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold linearly in terms of the presentation length of its fundamental group, improving a result of White.

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arXiv2010

Ideal Triangulations of Pseudo-Anosov Mapping Tori

We show how to construct an ideal triangulation of a mapping torus of a pseudo-Anosov map punctured along the singular fibers. This gives rise to a new conjugacy invariant of mapping classes, and a new proof of a theorem of Farb-Leininger-Margalit. The approach in this paper is based on ideas of Hamenstadt.

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arXiv2010

The minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 2-cusped 3-manifolds

We prove that the Whitehead link complement and the (-2, 3, 8) pretzel link complement are the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds with two cusps, with volume 3.66... = 4 x Catalan's constant. We use topological arguments to establish the existence of an essential surface which provides a lower bound on volume and strong constraints on the manifolds that realize that lower bound.

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arXiv2009

Dehn surgery, homology and hyperbolic volume

If a closed, orientable hyperbolic 3--manifold M has volume at most 1.22 then H_1(M;Z_p) has dimension at most 2 for every prime p not 2 or 7, and H_1(M;Z_2) and H_1(M;Z_7) have dimension at most 3. The proof combines several deep results about hyperbolic 3--manifolds. The strategy is to compare the volume of a tube about a shortest closed geodesic C in M with the volumes of tubes about short closed geodesics in a sequence of hyperbolic manifolds obtained from M by Dehn surgeries on C.

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arXiv2008

Bounds on exceptional Dehn filling II

We show that there are at most finitely many one cusped orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds which have more than eight non-hyperbolic Dehn fillings. Moreover, we show that determining these finitely many manifolds is decidable.

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arXiv2008

Criteria for virtual fibering

We prove that an irreducible 3-manifold whose fundamental group satisfies a certain group-theoretic property called RFRS is virtually fibered. As a corollary, we show that 3-dimensional reflection orbifolds and arithmetic hyperbolic orbifolds defined by a quadratic form virtually fiber. These include the Seifert Weber dodecahedral space and the Bianchi orbifolds. Moreover, we show that a taut sutured compression body has a finite-sheeted cover with a depth one taut-oriented foliation.

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arXiv2008

Pants immersed in hyperbolic 3-manifolds

We show that an immersed thrice-punctured sphere in a cusped orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold is either embedded or has a single clasp in a manifold obtained by hyperbolic Dehn filling on a cusp of the Whitehead link complement.

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arXiv2008

Singular surfaces, mod 2 homology, and hyperbolic volume, I

This paper contains a purely topological theorem and a geometric application. The topological theorem states that if M is a simple closed orientable 3-manifold such that π_1(M) contains a genus g surface group and H_1(M;Z/2Z) has rank at least 4g-1 then M contains a closed incompressible surface of genus at most g. This result should be viewed as an analogue of Dehn's Lemma for π_1-injective singular surfaces. The geometric application states that if M is a closed orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold with volume less than 3.08 then the rank of H_1(M;Z/2Z) is at most 6. The proof of the geometric theorem combines the topological theorem with several deep geometric results, including the Marden tameness conjecture,recently established by Agol and by Calegari-Gabai; a co-volume estimate for 3-tame, 3-free Kleinian groups due to Anderson, Canary, Culler and Shalen; and a volume estimate for hyperbolic Haken manifolds recently proved by Agol, Storm and W. Thurston.

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arXiv2005

Lower bounds on volumes of hyperbolic Haken 3-manifolds

We prove a volume inequality for 3-manifolds having C^0 metrics "bent" along a hypersurface, and satisfying certain curvature pinching conditions. The result makes use of Perelman's work on Ricci flow and geometrization of closed 3-manifolds. Corollaries include a new proof of a conjecture of Bonahon about volumes of convex cores of Kleinian groups, improved volume estimates for certain Haken hyperbolic 3-manifolds, and a lower bound on the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold. An appendix by Dunfield compares estimates of volumes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds drilled along a closed embedded geodesic with experimental data.

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arXiv2004

The Computational Complexity of Knot Genus and Spanning Area

We investigate the computational complexity of some problems in three-dimensional topology and geometry. We show that the problem of determining a bound on the genus of a knot in a 3-manifold, is NP-complete. Using similar ideas, we show that deciding whether a curve in a metrized PL 3-manifold bounds a surface of area less than a given constant C is NP-hard.

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arXiv2004

Transcendental ending laminations

Yair Minsky showed that punctured torus groups are classified by a pair of ending laminations (ν_-,ν_+). In this note, we show that there are ending laminations ν_+ such that for any choice of ν_-, the punctured torus group is transcendental as a subgroup of PSL_2 C.

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arXiv2004

Tameness of hyperbolic 3-manifolds

We show that hyperbolic 3-manifolds with finitely generated fundamental group are tame, that is the ends are products. We actually work in slightly greater generality with pinched negatively curved manifolds with hyperbolic cusps. This answers a conjecture of Marden and implies the Ahlfors measure conjecture. Applications are given to other questions about Kleinian groups and 3-manifolds.

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