arXiv subjects

R. C. Penner

Publications and source records attributed to R. C. Penner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Decorated Super-Teichmüller Space

We introduce coordinates for a principal bundle $S\tilde T(F)$ over the super Teichmueller space $ST(F)$ of a surface $F$ with $s\geq 1$ punctures that extend the lambda length coordinates on the decorated bundle $\tilde T(F)=T(F)\times {\mathbb R}_+^s$ over the usual Teichmueller space $T(F)$. In effect, the action of a Fuchsian subgroup of $PSL(2,{\mathbb R})$ on Minkowski space ${\mathbb R}^{2,1}$ is replaced by the action of a super Fuchsian subgroup of $OSp(1|2)$ on the super Minkowski space ${\mathbb R}^{2,1|2}$, where $OSp(1|2)$ denotes the orthosymplectic Lie supergroup, and the lambda lengths are extended by fermionic invariants of suitable triples of isotropic vectors in ${\mathbb R}^{2,1|2}$. As in the bosonic case, there is the analogue of the Ptolemy transformation now on both even and odd coordinates as well as an invariant even two-form on $S\tilde T(F)$ generalizing the Weil-Petersson Kaehler form. This finally solves a problem posed in Yuri Ivanovitch Manin's Moscow seminar some thirty years ago to find the super analogue of decorated Teichmueller theory and provides a natural geometric interpretation in ${\mathbb R}^{2,1|2}$ for the super moduli of $S\tilde T(F)$.

math.GT↗

arXiv2015

Enumeration of chord diagrams on many intervals and their non-orientable analogs

Two types of connected chord diagrams with chord endpoints lying in a collection of ordered and oriented real segments are considered here: the real segments may contain additional bivalent vertices in one model but not in the other. In the former case, we record in a generating function the number of fatgraph boundary cycles containing a fixed number of bivalent vertices while in the latter, we instead record the number of boundary cycles of each fixed length. Second order, non-linear, algebraic partial differential equations are derived which are satisfied by these generating functions in each case giving efficient enumerative schemes. Moreover, these generating functions provide multi-parameter families of solutions to the KP hierarchy. For each model, there is furthermore a non-orientable analog, and each such model likewise has its own associated differential equation. The enumerative problems we solve are interpreted in terms of certain polygon gluings. As specific applications, we discuss models of several interacting RNA molecules. We also study a matrix integral which computes numbers of chord diagrams in both orientable and non-orientable cases in the model with bivalent vertices, and the large-N limit is computed using techniques of free probability.

math.CO↗

arXiv2015

Filtered screens and augmented Teichmüller space

We study a new bordification of the decorated Teichmüller space for a multiply punctured surface F by a space of filtered screens on the surface that arises from a natural elaboration of earlier work of McShane-Penner. We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for paths in this space of filtered screens to yield short curves having vanishing length in the underlying surface F. As a result, an appropriate quotient of this space of filtered screens on F yields a decorated augmented Teichmüller space which is shown to admit a CW decomposition that naturally projects to the augmented Teichmüller space by forgetting decorations and whose strata are indexed by a new object termed partially oriented stratum graphs.

math.GT↗

arXiv2013

Enumeration of RNA complexes via random matrix theory

We review a derivation of the numbers of RNA complexes of an arbitrary topology. These numbers are encoded in the free energy of the hermitian matrix model with potential V(x)=x^2/2-stx/(1-tx), where s and t are respective generating parameters for the number of RNA molecules and hydrogen bonds in a given complex. The free energies of this matrix model are computed using the so-called topological recursion, which is a powerful new formalism arising from random matrix theory. These numbers of RNA complexes also have profound meaning in mathematics: they provide the number of chord diagrams of fixed genus with specified numbers of backbones and chords as well as the number of cells in Riemann's moduli spaces for bordered surfaces of fixed topological type.

q-bio.QM↗

arXiv2012

Topological recursion for chord diagrams, RNA complexes, and cells in moduli spaces

We introduce and study the Hermitian matrix model with potential V(x)=x^2/2-stx/(1-tx), which enumerates the number of linear chord diagrams of fixed genus with specified numbers of backbones generated by s and chords generated by t. For the one-cut solution, the partition function, correlators and free energies are convergent for small t and all s as a perturbation of the Gaussian potential, which arises for st=0. This perturbation is computed using the formalism of the topological recursion. The corresponding enumeration of chord diagrams gives at once the number of RNA complexes of a given topology as well as the number of cells in Riemann's moduli spaces for bordered surfaces. The free energies are computed here in principle for all genera and explicitly for genera less than four.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Marked fatgraph complexes and surface automorphisms

Combinatorial aspects of the Torelli-Johnson-Morita theory of surface automorphisms are extended to certain subgroups of the mapping class groups. These subgroups are defined relative to a specified homomorphism from the fundamental group of the surface onto an arbitrary group $K$. For $K$ abelian, there is a combinatorial theory akin to the classical case, for example, providing an explicit cocycle representing the first Johnson homomophism with target $Λ^3 K$. Furthermore, the Earle class with coefficients in $K$ is represented by an explicit cocyle.

math.GT↗

arXiv2011

Tropicalized Lambda Lengths, Measured Laminations and Convexity

This work uncovers the tropical analogue for measured laminations of the convex hull construction of decorated Teichmueller theory, namely, it is a study in coordinates of geometric degeneration to a point of Thurston's boundary for Teichmueller space. This may offer a paradigm for the extension of the basic cell decomposition of Riemann's moduli space to other contexts for general moduli spaces of flat connections on a surface. In any case, this discussion drastically simplifies aspects of previous related studies as is explained. Furthermore, a new class of measured laminations relative to an ideal cell decomposition of a surface is discovered in the limit. Finally, the tropical analogue of the convex hull construction in Minkowski space is formulated as an explicit algorithm that serially simplifies a triangulation with respect to a fixed lamination and has its own independent applications.

math.GT↗

arXiv2010

Enumeration of linear chord diagrams

A linear chord diagram canonically determines a fatgraph and hence has an associated genus $g$. We compute the natural generating function ${\bf C}_g(z)=\sum_{n\geq 0} {\bf c}_g(n)z^n$ for the number ${\bf c}_g(n)$ of linear chord diagrams of fixed genus $g\geq 1$ with a given number $n\geq 0$ of chords and find the remarkably simple formula ${\bf C}_g(z)=z^{2g}R_g(z) (1-4z)^{{1\over 2}-3g}$, where $R_g(z)$ is a polynomial of degree at most $g-1$ with integral coefficients satisfying $R_g({1\over 4})\neq 0$ and $R_g(0) = {\bf c}_g(2g)\neq 0.$ In particular, ${\bf C}_g(z)$ is algebraic over $\mathbb C(z)$, which generalizes the corresponding classical fact for the generating function ${\bf C}_0(z)$ of the Catalan numbers. As a corollary, we also calculate a related generating function germaine to the enumeration of knotted RNA secondary structures, which is again found to be algebraic.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Finite type invariants and fatgraphs

We define an invariant $\nabla_G(M)$ of pairs M,G, where M is a 3-manifold obtained by surgery on some framed link in the cylinder $S\times I$, S is a connected surface with at least one boundary component, and G is a fatgraph spine of S. In effect, $\nabla_G$ is the composition with the $ι_n$ maps of Le-Murakami-Ohtsuki of the link invariant of Andersen-Mattes-Reshetikhin computed relative to choices determined by the fatgraph G; this provides a basic connection between 2d geometry and 3d quantum topology. For each fixed G, this invariant is shown to be universal for homology cylinders, i.e., $\nabla_G$ establishes an isomorphism from an appropriate vector space $\bar{H}$ of homology cylinders to a certain algebra of Jacobi diagrams. Via composition $\nabla_{G'}\circ\nabla_G^{-1}$ for any pair of fatgraph spines G,G' of S, we derive a representation of the Ptolemy groupoid, i.e., the combinatorial model for the fundamental path groupoid of Teichmuller space, as a group of automorphisms of this algebra. The space $\bar{H}$ comes equipped with a geometrically natural product induced by stacking cylinders on top of one another and furthermore supports related operations which arise by gluing a homology handlebody to one end of a cylinder or to another homology handlebody. We compute how $\nabla_G$ interacts with all three operations explicitly in terms of natural products on Jacobi diagrams and certain diagrammatic constants. Our main result gives an explicit extension of the LMO invariant of 3-manifolds to the Ptolemy groupoid in terms of these operations, and this groupoid extension nearly fits the paradigm of a TQFT. We finally re-derive the Morita-Penner cocycle representing the first Johnson homomorphism using a variant/generalization of $\nabla_G$.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

Groupoid Extensions of Mapping Class Representations for Bordered Surfaces

The mapping class group of a surface with one boundary component admits numerous interesting representations including as a group of automorphisms of a free group and as a group of symplectic transformations. Insofar as the mapping class group can be identified with the fundamental group of Riemann's moduli space, it is furthermore identified with a subgroup of the fundamental path groupoid upon choosing a basepoint. A combinatorial model for this, the mapping class groupoid, arises from the invariant cell decomposition of Teichmüller space, whose fundamental path groupoid is called the Ptolemy groupoid. It is natural to try to extend representations of the mapping class group to the mapping class groupoid, i.e., construct a homomorphism from the mapping class groupoid to the same target that extends the given representations arising from various choices of basepoint. Among others, we extend both aforementioned representations to the groupoid level in this sense, where the symplectic representation is lifted both rationally and integrally. The techniques of proof include several algorithms involving fatgraphs and chord diagrams. The former extension is given by explicit formulae depending upon six essential cases, and the kernel and image of the groupoid representation are computed. Furthermore, this provides groupoid extensions of any representation of the mapping class group that factors through its action on the fundamental group of the surface including, for instance, the Magnus representation and representations on the moduli spaces of flat connections.

math.GT↗

arXiv2009

Fatgraph Models of Proteins

We introduce a new model of proteins, which extends and enhances the traditional graphical representation by associating a combinatorial object called a fatgraph to any protein based upon its intrinsic geometry. Fatgraphs can easily be stored and manipulated as triples of permutations, and these methods are therefore amenable to fast computer implementation. Applications include the refinement of structural protein classifications and the prediction of geometric and other properties of proteins from their chemical structures.

q-bio.BM↗

arXiv2007

Canonical lifts of the Johnson homomorphisms to the Torelli groupoid

We prove that every trivalent marked bordered fatgraph comes equipped with a canonical generalized Magnus expansion in the sense of Kawazumi. This Magnus expansion is used to give canonical lifts of the higher Johnson homomorphisms $τ_m$, for $m\geq 1$, to the Torelli groupoid, and we provide a recursive combinatorial formula for tensor representatives of these lifts. In particular, we give an explicit 1-cocycle in the dual fatgraph complex which lifts $τ_2$ and thus answer affirmatively a question of Morita-Penner. To illustrate our techniques for calculating higher Johnson homomorphisms in general, we give explicit examples calculating $τ_m$, for $m\leq 3$.

math.GT↗

arXiv2007

Stable curves and screens on fatgraphs

The mapping class group invariant ideal cell decomposition of the Teichmueller space of a punctured surface times an open simplex has been used in a number of computations. This paper answers a question about the asymptotics of this decomposition, namely, in a given cell of the decomposition, which curves can be short? Screens are a new combinatorial structure which provide an answer to this question. The heart of the calculation here involves Ptolemy transformations and the triangle inequalities on lambda lengths.

math.GT↗

arXiv2006

A presentation for the baseleaf preserving mapping class group of the punctured solenoid

We give a presentation for the baseleaf preserving mapping class group $Mod(§)$ of the punctured solenoid $§$. The generators for our presentation were introduced previously, and several relations among them were derived. In addition, we show that $Mod(§)$ has no non-trivial central elements. Our main tool is a new complex of triangulations of the disk upon which $Mod(§)$ acts.

math.DS↗

arXiv2006

The Structure and Singularities of Arc Complexes

A classical combinatorial fact is that the simplicial complex consisting of disjointly embedded chords in a convex planar polygon is a sphere. For any surface F with non-empty boundary, there is an analogous complex Arc(F) consisting of suitable equivalence classes of arcs in F connecting its boundary components. The main result of this paper is the determination of those arc complexes Arc(F) that are also spherical. This classification has consequences for Riemann's moduli space via its known identification with an analogous arc complex in the punctured case with no boundary. Namely, the essential singulities of the natural cellular compactification can be described.

math.GT↗

arXiv2006

Probing mapping class groups using arcs

The action of the mapping class group of a surface on the collection of homotopy classes of disjointly embedded curves or arcs in the surface is discussed here as a tool for understanding Riemann's moduli space and its topological and geometric invariants. Furthermore, appropriate completions, elaborations, or quotients of the set of all such homotopy classes of curves or arcs give for instance Thurston's boundary for Teichmüller space or a combinatorial description of moduli space in terms of fatgraphs. Related open problems and questions are discussed.

math.GT↗

arXiv2006

Closed/open string diagrammatics

We introduce a combinatorial model based on measured foliations in surfaces which captures the phenomenology of open/closed string interactions. The predicted equations are derived in this model, and new equations can be discovered as well. In particular, several new equations together with known transformations generate the combinatorial version of open/closed duality. On the topological and chain levels, the algebraic structure discovered is new, but it specializes to a modular bi-operad on the level of homology.

math.GT↗

arXiv2006

Torelli groups, extended Johnson homomorphisms, and new cycles on the moduli space of curves

Infinite presentations are given for all of the higher Torelli groups of once-punctured surfaces. In the case of the classical Torelli group, a finite presentation of the corresponding groupoid is also given, and finite presentations of the classical Torelli groups acting trivially on homology modulo N are derived for all N. Furthermore, the first Johnson homomorphism, which is defined from the classical Torelli group to the third exterior power of the homology of the surface, is shown to lift to an explicit canonical 1-cocycle of the Teichmueller space. The main tool for these results is the known mapping class group invariant ideal cell decomposition of the Teichmueller space. This new 1-cocycle is mapping class group equivariant, so various contractions of its powers yield various combinatorial (co)cycles of the moduli space of curves, which are also new. Our combinatorial construction can be related to former works of Kawazumi and the first-named author with the consequence that the algebra generated by the cohomology classes represented by the new cocycles is precisely the tautological algebra of the moduli space. There is finally a discussion of prospects for similarly finding cocycle lifts of the higher Johnson homomorphisms.

math.GT↗