Finite maximal orientation reversing group actions on handlebodies and 3-manifolds

We study arbitrary (that is not necessarily orientation preserving) finite group actions on 3-dimensional orientable or nonorientable handlebodies of genus g. For g>1, the maximal possible order is 24(g−1); we characterize the corresponding groups of this order and also the occuring quotient orbifolds. Then we use this to study finite group actions of large order (with respect to the equivariant Heegaard genus g) on closed 3-manifolds, again concentrating on the maximal case of order 24(g−1). Our results extend corresponding results in the orientation preserving setting. Whereas for arbitrary finite group actions on handlebodies much more types of quotient orbifolds occur than in the orientation preserving case, it turns out that for closed 3-manifolds the situation is quite rigid, in contrast to the orientation preserving case where one has many possibilities to construct manifolds with large group actions.     

Crystallographic groups of Sol

We classify all the closed 3‐dimensional orbifolds with Sol‐geometry. These are aspherical orbifolds and so their fundamental groups determine the orbifolds completely. Thus we will classify all the crystallographic groups of Sol, together with all the Bieberbach groups, up to isomorphism.     

Criteria for virtual fibering

We prove that an irreducible 3-manifold with fundamental groupthat satisfies a certain group-theoretic property called RFRSis virtually fibered. As a corollary, we show that 3-dimensionalreflection orbifolds and arithmetic hyperbolic orbifolds definedby a quadratic form virtually fiber. These include the SeifertWeber dodecahedral space and the Bianchi groups. Moreover, weshow that a taut-sutured compression body has a finite-sheetedcover with a depth one taut-oriented foliation. Received July 29, 2007.     

A subanalytic triangulation theorem for real analytic orbifolds

Let X be a real analytic orbifold. Then each stratum of X is a subanalytic subset of X. We show that X has a unique subanalytic triangulation compatible with the strata of X. We also show that every Cr-orbifold, 1?r?∞, has a real analytic structure. This allows us to triangulate differentiable orbifolds. The results generalize the subanalytic triangulation theorems previously known for quotient orbifolds.     

Closed geodesics on orbifolds

In this paper, we try to generalize to the case of compact Riemannian orbifolds Q some classical results about the existence of closed geodesics of positive length on compact Riemannian manifolds M. We shall also consider the problem of the existence of infinitely many geometrically distinct closed geodesics.In the classical case the solution of those problems involve the consideration of the homotopy groups of M and the homology properties of the free loop space on M (Morse theory). Those notions have their analogue in the case of orbifolds. The main part of this paper will be to recall those notions and to show how the classical techniques can be adapted to the case of orbifolds.     

Free and free abelian Euler-Satake characteristics of nonorientable 2-orbifolds

We compute the Γ-sectors and Γ-Euler-Satake characteristic of a closed, effective 2-dimensional orbifold Q where Γ is a free or free abelian group. Using this information, we determine a family of orbifolds such that the complete collection of Γ-Euler-Satake characteristics associated to free and free abelian groups determines the number and type of singular points of Q as well as the Euler characteristic of the underlying space. Additionally, we show that any collection of these groups whose Euler-Satake characteristics determine this information contains both free and free abelian groups of arbitrarily large rank. It follows that the collection of Euler-Satake characteristics associated to free and free abelian groups constitute a finer orbifold invariant than the collection of Euler-Satake characteristics associated to free groups or free abelian groups alone.     

On the homotopy type of CW-complexes with aspherical fundamental group

This paper is concerned with the homotopy type distinction of finite CW-complexes. A (G,n)-complex is a finite n-dimensional CW-complex with fundamental-group G and vanishing higher homotopy-groups up to dimension n−1. In case G is an n-dimensional group there is a unique (up to homotopy) (G,n)-complex on the minimal Euler-characteristic level χmin(G,n). For every n we give examples of n-dimensional groups G for which there exist homotopically distinct (G,n)-complexes on the level χmin(G,n)+1. In the case where n=2 these examples are algebraic.     

Two Gauss-Bonnet and Poincaré-Hopf theorems for orbifolds with boundary

We generalize the Gauss-Bonnet and Poincaré-Hopf theorems to the case of orbifolds with boundary. We present two such generalizations, the first in the spirit of Satake, in which the local data (i.e. integral of the curvature in the case of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem and the index of the vector field in the case of the Poincaré-Hopf theorem) is related to Satake's orbifold Euler-Satake characteristic, a rational number which depends on the orbifold structure.For the second pair of generalizations, we use the Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology to express the local data in a way which can be related to the Euler characteristic of the underlying space of the orbifold.     

Noncyclic Covers of Knot Complements

Hempel has shown that the fundamental groups of knot complements are residually finite. This implies that every nontrivial knot must have a finite-sheeted, noncyclic cover. We give an explicit bound, Φ (c), such that if K is a nontrivial knot in the three-sphere with a diagram with c crossings then the complement of K has a finite-sheeted, noncyclic cover with at most Φ (c) sheets.The author is supported by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University.     

On cyclic bra nched coverings of torus knots

We prove that then-fold cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere branched over the torus knotsK(p,q), p>q2 (i.e. the Brieskorn manifolds in the sense of [12]) admit spines corresponding to cyclic presentations of groups ifp1 (modq). These presentations include as a very particular case the Sieradski groups, first introduced in [14] and successively obtained from geometric constructions in [4], [9], and [15]. So our main theorem answers in affirmative to an open question suggested by the referee in [14]. Then we discuss a question concerning cyclic presentations of groups and Alexander polynomials of knots.Work Performed under the auspicies of the G.N.S.A.G.A. of the C.N.R. (National Research Council) of Italy and partially supported by the Ministero per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica of Italy Within the projectsGeometria Reale e Complessa andTopologia and by the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation.     

Bridge position and the representativity of spatial graphs

In this paper, we consider closed surfaces which contain spatial graphs. In the case that a closed surface is a 2-sphere, we show that the 2-sphere can be isotoped so that it intersects a bridge sphere for the spatial graph in a single loop. In the case that a closed surface is not a 2-sphere, we define an invariant of a spatial graph by counting the number of intersection of a compressing disk for the closed surface and the spatial graph. By using this invariant, we give a lower bound for the bridge number of a spatial graph.     

Topology of compact space forms from Platonic solids. I.

The problem of classifying, up to isometry, the orientable 3-manifolds that arise by identifying the faces of a Platonic solid was completely solved in a nice paper of Everitt [B. Everitt, 3-manifolds from Platonic solids, Topology Appl. 138 (2004) 253-263]. His work completes the classification begun by Best [L.A. Best, On torsion-free discrete subgroups of PSL₂(C) with compact orbit space, Canad. J. Math. 23 (1971) 451-460], Lorimer [P.J. Lorimer, Four dodecahedral spaces, Pacific J. Math. 156 (2) (1992) 329-335], Prok [I. Prok, Classification of dodecahedral space forms, Beiträge Algebra Geom. 39 (2) (1998) 497-515], and Richardson and Rubinstein [J. Richardson, J.H. Rubinstein, Hyperbolic manifolds from a regular polyhedron, Preprint]. In this paper we investigate the topology of closed orientable 3-manifolds from Platonic solids. Here we completely recognize those manifolds in the spherical and Euclidean cases, and state topological properties for many of them in the hyperbolic case. The proofs of the latter will appear in a forthcoming paper.     

Finite Groups Acting on Homology 3-Spheres: On a Result of M. Reni

 We give a list including all finite groups G which admit smooth orientation preserving actions on homology 3-spheres (arbitrary actions, i.e. possibly with fixed points; if the action is free then the group G has periodic cohomology and the classification of such groups is well known). The main work in this direction is due to M. Reni. In the present paper, we complete and extend his results for the case of nonsolvable groups G. Received 19 March 2001; in revised form 15 September 2001     

Heegaard splittings of twisted torus knots

Little is known on the classification of Heegaard splittings for hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Although Kobayashi gave a complete classification of Heegaard splittings for the exteriors of 2-bridge knots, our knowledge of other classes is extremely limited. In particular, there are very few hyperbolic manifolds that are known to have a unique minimal genus splitting. Here we demonstrate that an infinite class of hyperbolic knot exteriors, namely exteriors of certain “twisted torus knots” originally studied by Morimoto, Sakuma and Yokota, have a unique minimal genus Heegaard splitting of genus two. We also conjecture that these manifolds possess irreducible yet weakly reducible splittings of genus three. There are no known examples of such Heegaard splittings.     

Jones polynomial of knots formed by repeated tangle replacement operations

In this paper, we prove that the Jones polynomial of a link diagram obtained through repeated tangle replacement operations can be computed by a sequence of suitable variable substitutions in simpler polynomials. For the case that all the tangles involved in the construction of the link diagram have at most k crossings (where k is a constant independent of the total number n of crossings in the link diagram), we show that the computation time needed to calculate the Jones polynomial of the link diagram is bounded above by O(nk). In particular, we show that the Jones polynomial of any Conway algebraic link diagram with n crossings can be computed in O(n²) time. A consequence of this result is that the Jones polynomial of any Montesinos link and two bridge knot or link of n crossings can be computed in O(n²) time.     

On the Alexander polynomials of knots with Gordian distance one

We consider a condition on a pair of the Alexander polynomials of knots which are realizable by a pair of knots with Gordian distance one. We show that there are infinitely many mutually disjoint infinite subsets in the set of the Alexander polynomials of knots such that every pair of distinct elements in each subset is not realizable by any pair of knots with Gordian distance one. As one of the subsets, we have an infinite set containing the Alexander polynomials of the trefoil knot and the figure eight knot. We also show that every pair of distinct Alexander polynomials such that one is the Alexander polynomial of a slice knot is realizable by a pair of knots of Gordian distance one, so that every pair of distinct elements in the infinite subset consisting of the Alexander polynomials of slice knots is realizable by a pair of knots with Gordian distance one. These results solve problems given by Y. Nakanishi and by I. Jong.     

The t-singular homology of orbifolds

For an orbifold M we define a new homology group, called t-singular homology group t-Hq(M) by using singular simplicies intersecting ‘transversely’ with ΣM. The rightness of this homology group is ensured by the facts that the 1-dimensional homology group t-H₁(M) is isomorphic to the abelianization of the orbifold fundamental group π₁(M,x₀). If M is a manifold, t-Hq(M) coincides with the usual singular homology group. We prove that it is a ‘b-homotopy’ invariant of orbifolds and develop many algebraic tools for the calculations. Consequently we calculate the t-singular homology groups of several orbifolds.     

Amalgamated products and properly 3-realizable groups

In this paper, we show that the class of all properly 3-realizable groups is closed under amalgamated free products (and HNN-extensions) over finite groups. We recall that G is said to be properly 3-realizable if there exists a compact 2-polyhedron K with π₁(K)≅G and whose universal cover has the proper homotopy type of a 3-manifold (with boundary).     

Isospectral orbifolds with different maximal isotropy orders

We construct pairs of compact Riemannian orbifolds which are isospectral for the Laplace operator on functions such that the maximal isotropy order of singular points in one of the orbifolds is higher than in the other. In one type of examples, isospectrality arises from a version of the famous Sunada theorem which also implies isospectrality on p-forms; here the orbifolds are quotients of certain compact normal homogeneous spaces. In another type of examples, the orbifolds are quotients of Euclidean and are shown to be isospectral on functions using dimension formulas for the eigenspaces developed in [12]. In the latter type of examples the orbifolds are not isospectral on 1-forms. Along the way we also give several additional examples of isospectral orbifolds which do not have maximal isotropy groups of different size but other interesting properties. All three authors were partially supported by DFG Sonderforschungsbereich 647.