12 research outputs found
The complexity of the normal surface solution space
Normal surface theory is a central tool in algorithmic three-dimensional
topology, and the enumeration of vertex normal surfaces is the computational
bottleneck in many important algorithms. However, it is not well understood how
the number of such surfaces grows in relation to the size of the underlying
triangulation. Here we address this problem in both theory and practice. In
theory, we tighten the exponential upper bound substantially; furthermore, we
construct pathological triangulations that prove an exponential bound to be
unavoidable. In practice, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of millions of
triangulations and find that in general the number of vertex normal surfaces is
remarkably small, with strong evidence that our pathological triangulations may
in fact be the worst case scenarios. This analysis is the first of its kind,
and the striking behaviour that we observe has important implications for the
feasibility of topological algorithms in three dimensions.Comment: Extended abstract (i.e., conference-style), 14 pages, 8 figures, 2
tables; v2: added minor clarification
Detecting genus in vertex links for the fast enumeration of 3-manifold triangulations
Enumerating all 3-manifold triangulations of a given size is a difficult but
increasingly important problem in computational topology. A key difficulty for
enumeration algorithms is that most combinatorial triangulations must be
discarded because they do not represent topological 3-manifolds. In this paper
we show how to preempt bad triangulations by detecting genus in
partially-constructed vertex links, allowing us to prune the enumeration tree
substantially.
The key idea is to manipulate the boundary edges surrounding partial vertex
links using expected logarithmic time operations. Practical testing shows the
resulting enumeration algorithm to be significantly faster, with up to 249x
speed-ups even for small problems where comparisons are feasible. We also
discuss parallelisation, and describe new data sets that have been obtained
using high-performance computing facilities.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; v2: minor revisions; to appear in
ISSAC 201
Enumerating fundamental normal surfaces: Algorithms, experiments and invariants
Computational knot theory and 3-manifold topology have seen significant
breakthroughs in recent years, despite the fact that many key algorithms have
complexity bounds that are exponential or greater. In this setting,
experimentation is essential for understanding the limits of practicality, as
well as for gauging the relative merits of competing algorithms.
In this paper we focus on normal surface theory, a key tool that appears
throughout low-dimensional topology. Stepping beyond the well-studied problem
of computing vertex normal surfaces (essentially extreme rays of a polyhedral
cone), we turn our attention to the more complex task of computing fundamental
normal surfaces (essentially an integral basis for such a cone). We develop,
implement and experimentally compare a primal and a dual algorithm, both of
which combine domain-specific techniques with classical Hilbert basis
algorithms. Our experiments indicate that we can solve extremely large problems
that were once though intractable. As a practical application of our
techniques, we fill gaps from the KnotInfo database by computing 398
previously-unknown crosscap numbers of knots.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures; v2: Stronger experimental focus, restrict
attention to primal & dual algorithms only, larger and more detailed
experiments, more new crosscap number
Maximal admissible faces and asymptotic bounds for the normal surface solution space
The enumeration of normal surfaces is a key bottleneck in computational
three-dimensional topology. The underlying procedure is the enumeration of
admissible vertices of a high-dimensional polytope, where admissibility is a
powerful but non-linear and non-convex constraint. The main results of this
paper are significant improvements upon the best known asymptotic bounds on the
number of admissible vertices, using polytopes in both the standard normal
surface coordinate system and the streamlined quadrilateral coordinate system.
To achieve these results we examine the layout of admissible points within
these polytopes. We show that these points correspond to well-behaved
substructures of the face lattice, and we study properties of the corresponding
"admissible faces". Key lemmata include upper bounds on the number of maximal
admissible faces of each dimension, and a bijection between the maximal
admissible faces in the two coordinate systems mentioned above.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables; v2: minor revisions (to appear in
Journal of Combinatorial Theory A
Quadrilateral-octagon coordinates for almost normal surfaces
Normal and almost normal surfaces are essential tools for algorithmic
3-manifold topology, but to use them requires exponentially slow enumeration
algorithms in a high-dimensional vector space. The quadrilateral coordinates of
Tollefson alleviate this problem considerably for normal surfaces, by reducing
the dimension of this vector space from 7n to 3n (where n is the complexity of
the underlying triangulation). Here we develop an analogous theory for
octagonal almost normal surfaces, using quadrilateral and octagon coordinates
to reduce this dimension from 10n to 6n. As an application, we show that
quadrilateral-octagon coordinates can be used exclusively in the streamlined
3-sphere recognition algorithm of Jaco, Rubinstein and Thompson, reducing
experimental running times by factors of thousands. We also introduce joint
coordinates, a system with only 3n dimensions for octagonal almost normal
surfaces that has appealing geometric properties.Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures; v2: Simplified the proof of Theorem 4.5 using
cohomology, plus other minor changes; v3: Minor housekeepin