Covering simply connected regions by rectangles

We prove that the ratio of the minimum number of rectangles covering a simply connected board (polyomino)B and the maximum number of points inB no two of which are contained in a common rectangle is less than 2. This research was partially supported by MEV (Budapest).     

Tiling by rectangles and alternating current

This paper is on tilings of polygons by rectangles. A celebrated physical interpretation of such tilings by R.L. Brooks, C.A.B. Smith, A.H. Stone and W.T. Tutte uses direct-current circuits. The new approach of this paper is an application of alternating-current circuits. The following results are obtained:

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a necessary condition for a rectangle to be tilable by rectangles of given shapes;

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a criterion for a rectangle to be tilable by rectangles similar to it but not all homothetic to it;

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a criterion for a “generic” polygon to be tilable by squares.

These results generalize those of C. Freiling, R. Kenyon, M. Laczkovich, D. Rinne, and G. Szekeres.     

Tiling a simply connected figure with bars of length 2 or 3

Let F be a simply connected figure formed from a finite set of cells of the planar square lattice. We first prove that if F has no peak (a peak is a cell of F which has three of its edges in the contour of F), then F can be tiled with rectangular bars formed from 2 or 3 cells. Afterwards, we devise a linear-time algorithm for finding a tiling of F with those bars when such a tiling exists.     

Tromino tilings of domino-deficient rectangles

We consider tromino tilings of m×n domino-deficient rectangles, where 3|(mn−2) and m,n≥0, and characterize all cases of domino removal that admit such tilings, thereby settling the open problem posed by Ash and Golomb in [J. Marshall Ash, S. Golomb, Tiling Deficient Rectangles with Trominoes, Integre Technical Publishing Co., Mathematics Magazine (2003), 46-55]. We suggest a procedure for tiling domino-deficient rectangles based on this characterization. We also consider general 2-deficiency in n×4 rectangles, where n≥8, and characterize all pairs of missing squares which do not permit a tromino tiling.     

Tiling space and slabs with acute tetrahedra

We show it is possible to tile three-dimensional space using only tetrahedra with acute dihedral angles. We present several constructions to achieve this, including one in which all dihedral angles are less than 74.21°, and another which tiles a slab in space.     

Hamiltonian properties of locally connected graphs with bounded vertex degree

We consider the existence of Hamiltonian cycles for the locally connected graphs with a bounded vertex degree. For a graph G, let Δ(G) and δ(G) denote the maximum and minimum vertex degrees, respectively. We explicitly describe all connected, locally connected graphs with Δ(G)?4. We show that every connected, locally connected graph with Δ(G)=5 and δ(G)?3 is fully cycle extendable which extends the results of Kikust [P.B. Kikust, The existence of the Hamiltonian circuit in a regular graph of degree 5, Latvian Math. Annual 16 (1975) 33-38] and Hendry [G.R.T. Hendry, A strengthening of Kikust’s theorem, J. Graph Theory 13 (1989) 257-260] on full cycle extendability of the connected, locally connected graphs with the maximum vertex degree bounded by 5. Furthermore, we prove that problem Hamilton Cycle for the locally connected graphs with Δ(G)?7 is NP-complete.     

On semilocally simply connected spaces

The purpose of this paper is: (i) to construct a space which is semilocally simply connected in the sense of Spanier even though its Spanier group is non-trivial; (ii) to propose a modification of the notion of a Spanier group so that via the modified Spanier group semilocal simple connectivity can be characterized; and (iii) to point out that with just a slightly modified definition of semilocal simple connectivity which is sometimes also used in literature, the classical Spanier group gives the correct characterization within the general class of path-connected topological spaces.While the condition “semilocally simply connected” plays a crucial role in classical covering theory, in generalized covering theory one needs to consider the condition “homotopically Hausdorff” instead. The paper also discusses which implications hold between all of the abovementioned conditions and, via the modified Spanier groups, it also unveils the weakest so far known algebraic characterization for the existence of generalized covering spaces as introduced by Fischer and Zastrow. For most of the implications, the paper also proves the non-reversibility by providing the corresponding examples. Some of them rely on spaces that are newly constructed in this paper.     

Hypersurfaces in simply connected space forms

Let M be a hypersurface in a simply connected space form . We prove some rigidity results for M in terms of lower bounds on the Ricci curvature of the hypersurface M.     

A simply connected numerical Campedelli surface with an involution

We construct a simply connected minimal complex surface of general type with $p_g=0$ and $K^2=2$ which has an involution such that the minimal resolution of the quotient by the involution is a simply connected minimal complex surface of general type with $p_g=0$ and $K^2=1$ . In order to construct the example, we combine a double covering and $\mathbb Q $ -Gorenstein deformation. Especially, we develop a method for proving unobstructedness for deformations of a singular surface by generalizing a result of Burns and Wahl which characterizes the space of first order deformations of a singular surface with only rational double points. We describe the stable model in the sense of Kollár and Shepherd-Barron of the singular surfaces used for constructing the example. We count the dimension of the invariant part of the deformation space of the example under the induced $\mathbb Z /{2}\mathbb Z $ -action.     

Topologically knotted Lagrangians in simply connected four-manifolds

Vidussi was the first to construct knotted Lagrangian tori in simply connected four-dimensional manifolds. Fintushel and Stern introduced a second way to detect such knotting. This note demonstrates that similar examples may be distinguished by the fundamental group of the exterior.

     

Circle actions on simply connected 5-manifolds

The aim of this paper is to study compact 5-manifolds which admit fixed point free circle actions. The first result implies that the torsion in the second homology and the second Stiefel-Whitney class have to satisfy strong restrictions. We then show that for simply connected 5-manifolds these restrictions are necessary and sufficient.     

Differentiable structures with zero entropy on simply connected 4-manifolds

We show that a closed 4-dimensional simply connected topological manifoldM admits a differentiable structure with aC Riemannian metric whose geodesic flow has zero topological entropy if and only ifM is homeomorphic toS ⁴, ²,S ²×S ², or ²#².     

Singular Riemannian foliations on simply connected spaces

A singular foliation on a complete Riemannian manifold is said to be Riemannian if each geodesic that is perpendicular at one point to a leaf remains perpendicular to every leaf it meets. The singular foliation is said to admit sections if each regular point is contained in a totally geodesic complete immersed submanifold that meets every leaf orthogonally and whose dimension is the codimension of the regular leaves. A typical example of such a singular foliation is the partition by orbits of a polar action, e.g. the orbits of the adjoint action of a compact Lie group on itself.We prove that a singular Riemannian foliation with compact leaves that admits sections on a simply connected space has no exceptional leaves, i.e., each regular leaf has trivial normal holonomy. We also prove that there exists a convex fundamental domain in each section of the foliation and in particular that the space of leaves is a convex Coxeter orbifold.     

Families of simply connected 4-manifolds with the same Seiberg-Witten invariants

This article presents several new constructions of infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic. While the construction gives strong evidence that any two of these manifolds of are not diffeomorphic, they cannot be distinguished by Seiberg-Witten invariants. Whether these manifolds are, or are not, diffeomorphic seems to be a very difficult question to answer. For one of these constructions, each member of the family is symplectic with the further property that each contains nullhomologous tori with the property that infinitely many log transformations on these tori yield nonsymplectic 4-manifolds. This is detected by calculations of Seiberg-Witten invariants. The surgery in question can be performed on any 4-manifold which contains as a codimension 0 submanifold a punctured surface bundle over a punctured surface and a nontrivial loop in the base which has trivial monodromy. A starting point for another class of examples in this paper is a family of examples which show that the Parshin-Arakelov theorem for holomorphic Lefschetz fibrations is false in the symplectic category. Such families are constructed by means of knot surgery on ellipitic surfaces. It is shown that for a fixed homeomorphism type X (of a simply connected elliptic surface) and a fixed integer g?3, there are infinitely many genus g Lefschetz fibrations on nondiffeomorphic 4-manifolds, all homeomorphic to X.     

On vector fields with simply connected trajectories and one invariant line

We study polynomial vector fields X on ${\mathbb{C}}^2$ which have simply connected trajectories and satisfy $dP(X)=a?P$, for a constant $a\in {\mathbb{C}}^{?}$ and a primitive polynomial $P\in \mathbb{C}[x,y]$. We determine X, up to an algebraic change of coordinates. In particular, we obtain that X is complete.     

The fixed-point property for simply connected plane continua

We answer a question of R. Ma\'{n}ka by proving that every simply-connected plane continuum has the fixed-point property. It follows that an arcwise-connected plane continuum has the fixed-point property if and only if its fundamental group is trivial. Let be a plane continuum with the property that every simple closed curve in bounds a disk in . Then every map of that sends each arc component into itself has a fixed point. Hence every deformation of has a fixed point. These results are corollaries to the following general theorem. If is a plane continuum, is a decomposition of , and each element of is simply connected, then every map of that sends each element of into itself has a fixed point.