Reeb graph and quasi-states on the two-dimensional torus

This note deals with quasi-states on the two-dimensional torus. Quasi-states are certain quasi-linear functionals (introduced by Aarnes) on the space of continuous functions. Grubb constructed a quasi-state on the torus, which is invariant under the group of area-preserving diffemorphisms, and which moreover vanishes on functions having support in an open disk. Knudsen asserted the uniqueness of such a quasi-state; for the sake of completeness, we provide a proof. We calculate the value of Grubb's quasi-state on Morse functions with distinct critical values via their Reeb graphs. The resulting formula coincides with the one obtained by Py in his work on quasi-morphisms on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus.Comment: 8 page

Orthogonal surfaces

Orthogonal surfaces are nice mathematical objects which have interesting connections to various fields, e.g., integer programming, monomial ideals and order dimension. While orthogonal surfaces in one or two dimensions are rather trivial already the three dimensional case has a rich structure with connections to Schnyder woods, planar graphs and 3-polytopes. Our objective is to detect more of the structure of orthogonal surfaces in four and higher dimensions. In particular we are driven by the question which non-generic orthogonal surfaces have a polytopal structure. We study characteristic points and the cp-orders of orthogonal surfaces, i.e., the dominance orders on the characteristic points. In the generic case these orders are (almost) face lattices of polytopes. Examples show that in general cp-orders can lack key properties of face lattices. We investigate extra requirements which may help to have cp-orders which are face lattices. Finally, we turn the focus and ask for the realizability of polytopes on orthogonal surfaces. There are criteria which prevent large classes of simplicial polytopes from being realizable. On the other hand we identify some families of polytopes which can be realized on orthogonal surfaces

Smooth functions on 2-torus whose Kronrod-Reeb graph contains a cycle

Let $f:M\to \mathbb{R}$ be a Morse function on a connected compact surface $M$, and $\mathcal{S}(f)$ and $\mathcal{O}(f)$ be respectively the stabilizer and the orbit of $f$ with respect to the right action of the group of diffeomorphisms $\mathcal{D}(M)$. In a series of papers the first author described the homotopy types of connected components of $\mathcal{S}(f)$ and $\mathcal{O}(f)$ for the cases when $M$ is either a $2$-disk or a cylinder or $\chi(M)<0$. Moreover, in two recent papers the authors considered special classes of smooth functions on $2$-torus $T^2$ and shown that the computations of $\pi_1\mathcal{O}(f)$ for those functions reduces to the cases of $2$-disk and cylinder. In the present paper we consider another class of Morse functions $f:T^2\to\mathbb{R}$ whose KR-graphs have exactly one cycle and prove that for every such function there exists a subsurface $Q\subset T^2$, diffeomorphic with a cylinder, such that $\pi_1\mathcal{O}(f)$ is expressed via the fundamental group $\pi_1\mathcal{O}(f|_{Q})$ of the restriction of $f$ to $Q$. This result holds for a larger class of smooth functions $f:T^2\to \mathbb{R}$ having the following property: for every critical point $z$ of $f$ the germ of $f$ at $z$ is smoothly equivalent to a homogeneous polynomial $\mathbb{R}^2\to \mathbb{R}$ without multiple factors.Comment: 17pages, 8 figure

Relative Hofer-Zehnder capacity and periodic orbits in twisted cotangent bundles

The main theme of this paper is a relative version of the almost existence theorem for periodic orbits of autonomous Hamiltonian systems. We show that almost all low levels of a function on a geometrically bounded symplectically aspherical manifold carry contractible periodic orbits of the Hamiltonian flow, provided that the function attains its minimum along a closed symplectic submanifold. As an immediate consequence, we obtain the existence of contractible periodic orbits on almost all low energy levels for twisted geodesic flows with symplectic magnetic field. We give examples of functions with a sequence of regular levels without periodic orbits, converging to an isolated, but very degenerate, minimum. The proof of the relative almost existence theorem hinges on the notion of the relative Hofer-Zehnder capacity and on showing that this capacity of a small neighborhood of a symplectic submanifold is finite. The latter is carried out by proving that the flow of a Hamiltonian with sufficiently large variation has a non-trivial contractible one-periodic orbit, when the Hamiltonian is constant and equal to its maximum near a symplectic submanifold and supported in a neighborhood of the submanifold.Comment: AMS-LaTeX2e, 35 pages, 2 figures. References and new results on time-dependent flows adde

Slow volume growth for Reeb flows on spherizations and contact Bott--Samelson theorems

We give a uniform lower bound for the polynomial complexity of all Reeb flows on the spherization (S*M,\xi) over a closed manifold. Our measure for the dynamical complexity of Reeb flows is slow volume growth, a polynomial version of topological entropy, and our uniform bound is in terms of the polynomial growth of the homology of the based loops space of M. As an application, we extend the Bott--Samelson theorem from geodesic flows to Reeb flows: If (S*M,\xi) admits a periodic Reeb flow, or, more generally, if there exists a positive Legendrian loop of a fibre S*_q M, then M is a circle or the fundamental group of M is finite and the integral cohomology ring of the universal cover of M is the one of a compact rank one symmetric space.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figur

Dirac operators on cobordisms: degenerations and surgery

We investigate the Dolbeault operator on a pair of pants, i.e., an elementary cobordism between a circle and the disjoint union of two circles. This operator induces a canonical selfadjoint Dirac operator $D_t$ on each regular level set $C_t$ of a fixed Morse function defining this cobordism. We show that as we approach the critical level set $C_0$ from above and from below these operators converge in the gap topology to (different) selfadjoint operators $D_\pm$ that we describe explicitly. We also relate the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index of the Dolbeault operator on the cobordism to the spectral flows of the operators $D_t$ on the complement of $C_0$ and the Kashiwara-Wall index of a triplet of finite dimensional lagrangian spaces canonically determined by $C_0$.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures; completely rewrote Section 4 using the definition of Kirk and Lesch of the Kashiwara-Wall inde

Differential algebra of cubic planar graphs

In this article we associate a combinatorial differential graded algebra to a cubic planar graph G. This algebra is defined combinatorially by counting binary sequences, which we introduce, and several explicit computations are provided. In addition, in the appendix by K. Sackel the F(q)-rational points of its graded augmentation variety are shown to coincide with (q+1)-colorings of the dual graph.Comment: 33 pages, 22 figure

A classification of automorphisms of compact 3-manifolds

We classify isotopy classes of automorphisms (self-homeomorphisms) of 3-manifolds satisfying the Thurston Geometrization Conjecture. The classification is similar to the classification of automorphisms of surfaces developed by Nielsen and Thurston, except an automorphism of a reducible manifold must first be written as a suitable composition of two automorphisms, each of which fits into our classification. Given an automorphism, the goal is to show, loosely speaking, either that it is periodic, or that it can be decomposed on a surface invariant up to isotopy, or that it has a "dynamically nice" representative, with invariant laminations that "fill" the manifold. We consider automorphisms of irreducible and boundary-irreducible 3-manifolds as being already classified, though there are some exceptional manifolds for which the automorphisms are not understood. Thus the paper is particularly aimed at understanding automorphisms of reducible and/or boundary reducible 3-manifolds. Previously unknown phenomena are found even in the case of connected sums of products of a 2-sphere with a 1-sphere. To deal with this case, we prove that a minimal genus Heegaard decomposition is unique up to isotopy, a result which apparently was previously unknown. Much remains to be understood about some of the automorphisms of the classification.Comment: 61 pages, 8 eps figure

Closed Reeb orbits on the sphere and symplectically degenerate maxima

We show that the existence of one simple closed Reeb orbit of a particular type (a symplectically degenerate maximum) forces the Reeb flow to have infinitely many periodic orbits. We use this result to give a different proof of a recent theorem of Cristofaro-Gardiner and Hutchings asserting that every Reeb flow on the standard contact three-sphere has at least two periodic orbits. Our methods are based on adapting the machinery originally developed for proving the Hamiltonian Conley conjecture to the contact setting

Ergodic components and topological entropy in geodesic flows of surfaces

We consider the geodesic flow of reversible Finsler metrics on the 2-sphere and the 2-torus, whose geodesic flow has vanishing topological entropy. Following a construction of A. Katok, we discuss examples of Finsler metrics on both surfaces, which have large ergodic components for the geodesic flow in the unit tangent bundle. On the other hand, using results of J. Franks and M. Handel, we prove that ergodicity and dense orbits cannot occur in the full unit tangent bundle of the 2-sphere, if the Finsler metric has positive flag curvatures and at least two closed geodesics. In the case of the 2-torus, we show that ergodicity is restricted to strict subsets of tubes between flow-invariant tori in the unit tangent bundle of the 2-torus.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure