arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Saul Schleimer.
We construct a number of sculptures, each based on a geometric design native to the three-dimensional sphere. Using stereographic projection we transfer the design from the three-sphere to ordinary Euclidean space. All of the sculptures are then fabricated by the 3D printing service Shapeways.
We give a distance estimate for the metric on the disk complex and show that it is Gromov hyperbolic. As another application of our techniques, we find an algorithm which computes the Hempel distance of a Heegaard splitting, up to an error depending only on the genus.
Any quasi-isometry of the complex of curves is bounded distance from a simplicial automorphism. As a consequence, the quasi-isometry type of the curve complex determines the homeomorphism type of the surface.
We show that the subsurface projection of a train track splitting sequence is an unparameterized quasi-geodesic in the curve complex of the subsurface. For the proof we introduce induced tracks, efficient position, and wide curves. This result is an important step in the proof that the disk complex is Gromov hyperbolic. As another application we show that train track sliding and splitting sequences give quasi-geodesics in the train track graph, generalizing a result of Hamenstaedt [Invent. Math.].
We show that the automorphism group of the disk complex is isomorphic to the handlebody group. Using this, we prove that the outer automorphism group of the handlebody group is trivial.
We prove that for any closed surface of genus at least four, and any punctured surface of genus at least two, the space of ending laminations is connected. A theorem of E. Klarreich implies that this space is homeomorphic to the Gromov boundary of the complex of curves. It follows that the boundary of the complex of curves is connected in these cases, answering the conjecture of P. Storm. Other applications include the rigidity of the complex of curves and connectivity of spaces of degenerate Kleinian groups.
This note is an exposition of Waldhausen's proof of Waldhausen's Theorem: the three-sphere has a single Heegaard splitting, up to isotopy, in every genus. As a necessary step we also give a sketch of the Reidemeister-Singer Theorem.
We show that if two 3-manifolds with toroidal boundary are glued via a `sufficiently complicated' map then every Heegaard splitting of the resulting 3-manifold is weakly reducible. Additionally, if Z is a manifold obtained by gluing X and Y, two connected small manifolds with incompressible boundary, along a closed surface F. Then the genus g(Z) of Z is greater than or equal to 1/2(g(X)+g(Y)-2g(F)). Both results follow from a new technique to simplify the intersection between an incompressible surface and a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting.
In genus two and higher, the fundamental group of a closed surface acts naturally on the curve complex of the surface with one puncture. Combining ideas from previous work of Kent--Leininger--Schleimer and Mitra, we construct a universal Cannon--Thurston map from a subset of the circle at infinity for the closed surface group onto the boundary of the curve complex of the once-punctured surface. Using the techniques we have developed, we also show that the boundary of this curve complex is locally path-connected.
We construct nontrivial roots of Dehn twists about nonseparating curves.
Every cusped, finite-volume hyperbolic three-manifold has a canonical decomposition into ideal polyhedra. We study the canonical decomposition of the hyperbolic manifold obtained by filling some (but not all) of the cusps with solid tori: in a broad range of cases, generic in an appropriate sense, this decomposition can be predicted from that of the unfilled manifold. As an example, we treat all hyperbolic fillings on one cusp of the Whitehead link complement.
There is a forgetful map from the mapping class group of a punctured surface to that of the surface with one fewer puncture. We prove that finitely generated purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of the kernel of this map are convex cocompact in the sense of B. Farb and L. Mosher. In particular, we obtain an affirmative answer to their question of local convex cocompactness of K. Whittlesey's group. In the course of the proof, we obtain a new proof of a theorem of I. Kra. We also relate the action of this kernel on the curve complex to a family of actions on trees. This quickly yields a new proof of a theorem of J. Harer.
We construct knots in S^3 with Heegaard splittings of arbitrarily high distance, in any genus. As an application, for any positive integers t and b we find a tunnel number t knot in the three-sphere which has no (t,b)-decomposition.
We provide the first non-trivial examples of quasi-isometric embeddings between curve complexes. These are induced either by puncturing a closed surface or via orbifold coverings. As a corollary, we give new quasi-isometric embeddings between mapping class groups.
It is shown that every non-compact hyperbolic manifold of finite volume has a finite cover admitting a geodesic ideal triangulation. Also, every hyperbolic manifold of finite volume with non-empty, totally geodesic boundary has a finite regular cover which has a geodesic partially truncated triangulation. The proofs use an extension of a result due to Long and Niblo concerning the separability of peripheral subgroups.
We find polynomial-time solutions to the word problem for free-by-cyclic groups, the word problem for automorphism groups of free groups, and the membership problem for the handlebody subgroup of the mapping class group. All of these results follow from observing that automorphisms of the free group strongly resemble straight line programs, which are widely studied in the theory of compressed data structures. In an effort to be self-contained we give a detailed exposition of the necessary results from computer science.
Suppose that S is a surface of genus two or more, with exactly one boundary component. Then the curve complex of S has one end.
J Hempel [Topology, 2001] showed that the set of distances of the Heegaard splittings (S,V, h^n(V)) is unbounded, as long as the stable and unstable laminations of h avoid the closure of V in PML(S). Here h is a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of a surface S while V is the set of isotopy classes of simple closed curves in S bounding essential disks in a fixed handlebody. With the same hypothesis we show the distance of the splitting (S,V, h^n(V)) grows linearly with n, answering a question of A Casson. In addition we prove the converse of Hempel's theorem. Our method is to study the action of h on the curve complex associated to S. We rely heavily on the result, due to H Masur and Y Minsky [Invent. Math. 1999], that the curve complex is Gromov hyperbolic.