A characterization of short curves of a Teichmueller geodesic

We provide a combinatorial condition characterizing curves that are short along a Teichmueller geodesic. This condition is closely related to the condition provided by Minsky for curves in a hyperbolic 3-manifold to be short. We show that short curves in a hyperbolic manifold homeomorphic to S x R are also short in the corresponding Teichmueller geodesic, and we provide examples demonstrating that the converse is not true.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol9/paper5.abs.htm

On spun-normal and twisted squares surfaces

Given a 3 manifold M with torus boundary and an ideal triangulation, Yoshida and Tillmann give different methods to construct surfaces embedded in M from ideal points of the deformation variety. Yoshida builds a surface from twisted squares whereas Tillmann produces a spun-normal surface. We investigate the relation between the generated surfaces and extend a result of Tillmann's (that if the ideal point of the deformation variety corresponds to an ideal point of the character variety then the generated spun-normal surface is detected by the character variety) to the generated twisted squares surfaces.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Wrapping an adhesive sphere with a sheet

We study the adhesion of an elastic sheet on a rigid spherical substrate. Gauss'Theorema Egregium shows that this operation necessarily generates metric distortions (i.e. stretching) as well as bending. As a result, a large variety of contact patterns ranging from simple disks to complex branched shapes are observed as a function of both geometrical and material properties. We describe these different morphologies as a function of two non-dimensional parameters comparing respectively bending and stretching energies to adhesion. A complete configuration diagram is finally proposed