On injective homomorphisms between Teichmüller modular groups I

In this paper and its sequel, we prove that injective homomorphisms between Teichmüller modular groups of compact orientable surfaces are necessarily isomorphisms, if an appropriately measured “size” of the surfaces in question differs by at most one. In particular, we establish the co-Hopfian property for modular groups of surfaces of positive genus. Oblatum 24-III-1995 & 22-X-97 / Published online: 14 October 1998     

A Bishop surface with a vanishing Bishop invariant

We give a solution to the equivalence problem for Bishop surfaces with the Bishop invariant λ=0. As a consequence, we answer, in the negative, a problem that Moser asked in 1985 after his work with Webster in 1983 and his own work in 1985. This will be done in two major steps: We first derive the formal normal form for such surfaces. We then show that two real analytic Bishop surfaces with λ=0 are holomorphically equivalent if and only if they have the same formal normal form (up to a trivial rotation). Our normal form is constructed by an induction procedure through a completely new weighting system from what is used in the literature. Our convergence proof is done through a new hyperbolic geometry associated with the surface. As an immediate consequence of the work in this paper, we will see that the modular space of Bishop surfaces with the Bishop invariant vanishing and with the Moser invariant s<∞ is of infinite dimension. This phenomenon is strikingly different from the celebrated theory of Moser–Webster for elliptic Bishop surfaces with non-vanishing Bishop invariants where the surfaces only have two and one half invariants. Notice also that there are many real analytic hyperbolic Bishop surfaces, which have the same Moser–Webster formal normal form but are not holomorphically equivalent to each other as shown by Moser–Webster and Gong. Hence, Bishop surfaces with the Bishop invariant λ=0 behave very differently from hyperbolic Bishop surfaces and elliptic Bishop surfaces with non-vanishing Bishop invariants.     

Pants Decompositions of Random Surfaces

Our goal is to show, in two different contexts, that “random” surfaces have large pants decompositions. First we show that there are hyperbolic surfaces of genus g for which any pants decomposition requires curves of total length at least g ^7/6−ε . Moreover, we prove that this bound holds for most metrics in the moduli space of hyperbolic metrics equipped with the Weil–Petersson volume form. We then consider surfaces obtained by randomly gluing euclidean triangles (with unit side length) together and show that these surfaces have the same property.     

Kac–Moody $${\widetilde{E}_k}$$-bundles over elliptic curves and del Pezzo surfaces with singularities of type A

Given an elliptic curve Σ, flat E _k -bundles over Σ are in one-to-one correspondence with smooth del Pezzo surfaces of degree 9 − k containing Σ as an anti-canonical curve. This correspondence was generalized to Lie groups of any type. In this article, we show that there is a similar correspondence between del Pezzo surfaces of degree 0 with an A _d -singularity containing Σ as an anti-canonical curve and Kac–Moody [(E)\tilde]_k{\widetilde{E}_{k}}-bundles over Σ with k = 8 − d. In the degenerate case where surfaces are rational elliptic surfaces, the corresponding [(E)\tilde]_k{\widetilde{E}_k}-bundles over Σ can be reduced to E _k -bundles.     

Automorphisms of Maps with a Given Underlying Graph and Their Application to Enumeration

A graph is called a semi-regular graph if its automorphism group action on its ordered pair of adjacent vertices is semi-regular. In this paper, a necessary and sufficient condition for an automorphism of the graph F to be an automorphism of a map with the underlying graph F is obtained. Using this result, all orientation-preserving automorphisms of maps on surfaces (orientable and non-orientable) or just orientable surfaces with a given underlying semi-regular graph F are determined. Formulas for the numbers of non-equivalent embeddings of this kind of graphs on surfaces (orientable, non-orientable or both) are established, and especially, the non-equivalent embeddings of circulant graphs of a prime order on orientable, non-orientable and general surfaces are enumerated.     

Crystallography and Riemann surfaces

The level set of an elliptic function is a doubly periodic point set in ℂ. To obtain a wider spectrum of point sets, we consider, more generally, a Riemann surface S immersed in ℂ² and its sections (“cuts”) by ℂ More specifically, we consider surfaces S defined in terms of a fundamental surface element obtained as a conformai map of triangular domains in ℂ. The discrete group of isometries of ℂ² generated by reflections in the triangle edges leaves S invariant and generalizes double-periodicity. Our main result concerns the special case of maps of right triangles, with the right angle being a regular point of the map. For this class of maps we show that only seven Riemann surfaces, when cut, form point sets that are discrete in ℂ. Their isometry groups all have a rank 4 lattice subgroup, but only three of the corresponding point sets are doubly periodic in ℂ. The remaining surfaces form quasiperiodic point sets closely related to the vertex sets of quasiperiodic tilings. In fact, vertex sets of familiar tilings are recovered in all cases by applying the construction to a piecewise flat approximation of the corresponding Riemann surface. The geometry of point sets formed by cuts of Riemann surfaces is no less “rigid” than the geometry determined by a tiling, and has the distinct advantage in having a regular behavior with respect to the complex parameter which specifies the cut.     

Constant angle surfaces in the Heisenberg group

In this article we extend the notion of constant angle surfaces in $ \mathbb{S}^2 $ \mathbb{S}^2 × ℝ and ℍ² × ℝ to general Bianchi-Cartan-Vranceanu spaces. We show that these surfaces have constant Gaussian curvature and we give a complete local classification in the Heisenberg group.     

Constant Mean Curvature Surfaces with Boundaryin Hyperbolic Space

 We study constant mean curvature compact surfaces immersed in hyperbolic space with non-empty boundary (=H-surfaces). We prove that the only H-surfaces with boundary circular and 0≤∣H∣≤1, are the umbilical examples. When the surface is embedded, conditions to be umbilical are given. Finally, we characterize umbilical surfaces bounded by a circle among all H-discs with small area.     

Polyhedral surfaces in wedge products

We introduce the wedge product of two polytopes. The wedge product is described in terms of inequality systems, in terms of vertex coordinates as well as purely combinatorially, from the corresponding data of its constituents. The wedge product construction can be described as an iterated “subdirect product” as introduced by McMullen (Discrete Math 14:347–358, 1976); it is dual to the “wreath product” construction of Joswig and Lutz (J Combinatorial Theor A 110:193–216, 2005). One particular instance of the wedge product construction turns out to be especially interesting: The wedge products of polygons with simplices contain certain combinatorially regular polyhedral surfaces as subcomplexes. These generalize known classes of surfaces “of unusually large genus” that first appeared in works by Coxeter (Proc London Math Soc 43:33–62, 1937), Ringel (Abh Math Seminar Univ Hamburg 20:10–19, 1956), and McMullen et al. (Israel J Math 46:127–144, 1983). Via “projections of deformed wedge products” we obtain realizations of some of the surfaces in the boundary complexes of 4-polytopes, and thus in \mathbb R³{{\mathbb R}^3} . As additional benefits our construction also yields polyhedral subdivisions for the interior and the exterior, as well as a great number of local deformations (“moduli”) for the surfaces in \mathbb R³{{\mathbb R}^3} . In order to prove that there are many moduli, we introduce the concept of “affine support sets” in simple polytopes. Finally, we explain how duality theory for 4-dimensional polytopes can be exploited in order to also realize combinatorially dual surfaces in \mathbb R³{{\mathbb R}^3} via dual 4-polytopes.     

On Closed Weingarten Surfaces

We investigate closed surfaces in Euclidean 3-space satisfying certain functional relations κ = F(λ) between the principal curvatures κ, λ. In particular we find analytic closed surfaces of genus zero where F is a quadratic polynomial or F(λ) = cλ²ⁿ⁺¹. This generalizes results by H. Hopf on the case where F is linear and the case of ellipsoids of revolution where F(λ) = cλ³.     

A Discrete Laplace–Beltrami Operator for Simplicial Surfaces

We define a discrete Laplace–Beltrami operator for simplicial surfaces (Definition 16). It depends only on the intrinsic geometry of the surface and its edge weights are positive. Our Laplace operator is similar to the well known finite-elements Laplacian (the so called “cotan formula”) except that it is based on the intrinsic Delaunay triangulation of the simplicial surface. This leads to new definitions of discrete harmonic functions, discrete mean curvature, and discrete minimal surfaces. The definition of the discrete Laplace–Beltrami operator depends on the existence and uniqueness of Delaunay tessellations in piecewise flat surfaces. While the existence is known, we prove the uniqueness. Using Rippa’s Theorem we show that, as claimed, Musin’s harmonic index provides an optimality criterion for Delaunay triangulations, and this can be used to prove that the edge flipping algorithm terminates also in the setting of piecewise flat surfaces. Research for this article was supported by the DFG Research Unit 565 “Polyhedral Surfaces” and the DFG Research Center Matheon “Mathematics for key technologies” in Berlin.     

On Closed Weingarten Surfaces

We investigate closed surfaces in Euclidean 3-space satisfying certain functional relations κ = F(λ) between the principal curvatures κ, λ. In particular we find analytic closed surfaces of genus zero where F is a quadratic polynomial or F(λ) = cλ²ⁿ⁺¹. This generalizes results by H. Hopf on the case where F is linear and the case of ellipsoids of revolution where F(λ) = cλ³.     

On q-n-gonal Klein Surfaces

We consider proper Klein surfaces X of algebraic genus p ≥ 2, having an automorphism φ of prime order n with quotient space X/（φ） of algebraic genus q. These Klein surfaces axe called q-n-gonal surfaces and they are n-sheeted covers of surfaces of algebraic genus q. In this paper we extend the results of the already studied cases n ≤ 3 to this more general situation. Given p ≥ 2, we obtain, for each prime n, the （admissible） values q for which there exists a q-n-gonal surface of algebraic genus p. Furthermore, for each p and for each admissible q, it is possible to check all topological types of q-n-gonal surfaces with algebraic genus p. Several examples are given： q-pentagonal surfaces and q-n-gonal bordered surfaces with topological genus g = 0, 1.     

Intrinsic regular hypersurfaces in Heisenberg groups

We study the ℍ-regular surfaces, a class of intrinsic regular hypersurfaces in the setting of the Heisenberg group ℍ ⁿ = ℂ ⁿ × ℝ = ℝ²ⁿ⁺¹ endowed with a leftinvariant metric d_∞ equivalent to its Carnot-Carathéodory (CC) metric. Here hypersurface simply means topological codimension 1 surface and by the words “intrinsic” and “regular” we mean, respectively notions involving the group structure of ℍ ⁿ and its differential structure as CC manifold. In particular, we characterize these surfaces as intrinsic regular graphs inside ℍ ⁿ by studying the intrinsic regularity of the parameterizations and giving an areatype formula for their intrinsic surface measure.     

Constant Mean Curvature Surfaces with Boundaryin Hyperbolic Space

 We study constant mean curvature compact surfaces immersed in hyperbolic space with non-empty boundary (=H-surfaces). We prove that the only H-surfaces with boundary circular and 0≤∣H∣≤1, are the umbilical examples. When the surface is embedded, conditions to be umbilical are given. Finally, we characterize umbilical surfaces bounded by a circle among all H-discs with small area. Received 27 March 1997; in final form 11 June 1998     

On acyclic colorings of graphs on surfaces

A properk-coloring of a graph is acyclic if every 2-chromatic subgraph is acyclic. Borodin showed that every planar graph has an acyclic 5-coloring. This paper shows that the acyclic chromatic number of the projective plane is at most 7. The acyclic chromatic number of an arbitrary surface with Euler characteristic η=−γ is at mostO(γ^4/7). This is nearly tight; for every γ>0 there are graphs embeddable on surfaces of Euler characteristic −γ whose acyclic chromatic number is at least Ω(γ^4/7/(logγ)^1/7). Therefore, the conjecture of Borodin that the acyclic chromatic number of any surface but the plane is the same as its chromatic number is false for all surfaces with large γ (and may very well be false for all surfaces). This author's research was supported in part by a United States Israeli BSF grant. This author's research was supported by the Ministry of Research and Technology of Slovenia, Research Project P1-0210-101-92. This author's research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, grant number N00014-92-J-1965.     

Weierstrass representation for discrete isotropic surfaces in ℝ<Superscript>2,1</Superscript>, ℝ<Superscript>3,1</Superscript>, and ℝ<Superscript>2,2</Superscript>

Using an integrable discrete Dirac operator, we construct a discrete version of the Weierstrass representation for hyperbolic surfaces parameterized along isotropic directions in ℝ^2,1, ℝ^3,1, and ℝ^2,2. The corresponding discrete surfaces have isotropic edges. We show that any discrete surface satisfying a general monotonicity condition and having isotropic edges admits such a representation.     

Relative mean curvature configurations for surfaces in ℝ<Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> ≥ 5

We define the relative mean curvature directions on surfaces immersed in ℝⁿ, n ≥ 4, generalizing the concept of mean curvature directions for surfaces in 4-space studied by Mello. We obtain their differential equations and study their corresponding generic configurations. *Work partially supported by DGCYT grant no. MTM2004-03244 and Unimontes-BR. †Work partially supported by DGCYT grant no. MTM2004-03244. ‡Work partially supported by DGCYT grant no. BFM2003-0203.     

A regularity theorem for deformations of a compact complex surface

Let ƒ:M →D ⊑C ⁿ be a holomorphic family of compact, complex surfaces, which is locally trivial onD∖Z, for an analytic subsetZ. Conditions are found under which ƒ extends trivially toD, if the fibers of ƒ|_D∖Z are either Hirzebruch surfaces (projective bundles overP ₁), Hopf surfaces (elliptic bundles overP ₁), hyperelliptic bundles, or any compact complex surface having one of these as minimal model under blowing-down. The results of this paper are motivated by the existence of non-Hausdorff moduli spaces in the deformation of complex structure for certain complex manifolds.