Line problems in nonlinear computational geometry

We first review some topics in the classical computational geometry of lines, in particular the O(n^{3+\epsilon}) bounds for the combinatorial complexity of the set of lines in R^3 interacting with $n$ objects of fixed description complexity. The main part of this survey is recent work on a core algebraic problem--studying the lines tangent to k spheres that also meet 4-k fixed lines. We give an example of four disjoint spheres with 12 common real tangents.Comment: 22 pages, 13 color figure

Characteristic Length and Clustering

We explore relations between various variational problems for graphs like Euler characteristic chi(G), characteristic length mu(G), mean clustering nu(G), inductive dimension iota(G), edge density epsilon(G), scale measure sigma(G), Hilbert action eta(G) and spectral complexity xi(G). A new insight in this note is that the local cluster coefficient C(x) in a finite simple graph can be written as a relative characteristic length L(x) of the unit sphere S(x) within the unit ball B(x) of a vertex. This relation L(x) = 2-C(x) will allow to study clustering in more general metric spaces like Riemannian manifolds or fractals. If eta is the average of scalar curvature s(x), a formula mu ~ 1+log(epsilon)/log(eta) of Newman, Watts and Strogatz relates mu with the edge density epsilon and average scalar curvature eta telling that large curvature correlates with small characteristic length. Experiments show that the statistical relation mu ~ log(1/nu) holds for random or deterministic constructed networks, indicating that small clustering is often associated to large characteristic lengths and lambda=mu/log(nu) can converge in some graph limits of networks. Mean clustering nu, edge density epsilon and curvature average eta therefore can relate with characteristic length mu on a statistical level. We also discovered experimentally that inductive dimension iota and cluster-length ratio lambda correlate strongly on Erdos-Renyi probability spaces.Comment: 20 pages 13 figure

Lectures on the three--dimensional non--commutative spheres

These are expanded notes for a short course given at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. They aim at giving a self-contained account of the results of Alain Connes and Michel Dubois--Violette.Comment: 17 page

Link Homotopy in S^n x R^{m-n} and Higher Order mu-invariants

Given a suitable link map f into a manifold M, we constructed, in [10], link homotopy invariants kappa(f) and mu(f). In the present paper we study the case M=S^n x R^{m - n} in detail. Here mu(f) turns out to be the starting term of a whole sequence mu^(s)(f), s = 0, 1, ..., of higher mu-invariants which together capture all the information contained in kappa(f). We discuss the geometric significance of these new invariants. In several instances we obtain complete classification results. A central ingredient of our approach is the homotopy theory of wedges of spheres

Symmetry in Sphere-based Assembly Configuration Spaces

Many remarkably robust, rapid and spontaneous self-assembly phenomena in nature can be modeled geometrically starting from a collection of rigid bunches of spheres. This paper highlights the role of symmetry in sphere-based assembly processes. Since spheres within bunches could be identical and bunches could be identical as well, the underlying symmetry groups could be of large order that grows with the number of participating spheres and bunches. Thus, understanding symmetries and associated isomorphism classes of microstates correspond to various types of macrostates can significantly reduce the complexity of computing entropy and free energy, as well as paths and kinetics, in high dimensional configuration spaces. In addition, a precise understanding of symmetries is crucial for giving provable guarantees of algorithmic accuracy and efficiency in such computations. In particular, this may aid in predicting crucial assembly-driving interactions. This is a primarily expository paper that develops a novel, original framework for dealing with symmetries in configuration spaces of assembling spheres with the following goals. (1) We give new, formal definitions of various concepts relevant to sphere-based assembly that occur in previous work, and in turn, formal definitions of their relevant symmetry groups leading to the main theorem concerning their symmetries. These previously developed concepts include, for example, (a) assembly configuration spaces, (b) stratification of assembly configuration space into regions defined by active constraint graphs, (c) paths through the configurational regions, and (d) coarse assembly pathways. (2) We demonstrate the new symmetry concepts to compute sizes and numbers of orbits in two example settings appearing in previous work. (3) We give formal statements of a variety of open problems and challenges using the new conceptual definitions

Volume-minimizing foliations on spheres

The volume of a k-dimensional foliation $\mathcal{F}$ in a Riemannian manifold $M^{n}$ is defined as the mass of image of the Gauss map, which is a map from M to the Grassmann bundle of k-planes in the tangent bundle. Generalizing a construction by Gluck and Ziller, "singular" foliations by 3-spheres are constructed on round spheres $S^{4n+3}$, as well as a singular foliation by 7-spheres on $S^{15}$, which minimize volume within their respective relative homology classes. These singular examples provide lower bounds for volumes of regular 3-dimensional foliations of $S^{4n+3}$ and regular 7-dimensional foliations of $S^{15}$ .Comment: 12 pages, no figure

Topological field theories, string backgrounds and homotopy algebras

String backgrounds are described as purely geometric objects related to moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, in the spirit of Segal's definition of a conformal field theory. Relations with conformal field theory, topological field theory and topological gravity are studied. For each field theory, an algebraic counterpart, the (homotopy) algebra satisfied by the tree level correlators, is constructed.Comment: 12 page

Helly numbers of acyclic families

The Helly number of a family of sets with empty intersection is the size of its largest inclusion-wise minimal sub-family with empty intersection. Let F be a finite family of open subsets of an arbitrary locally arc-wise connected topological space Gamma. Assume that for every sub-family G of F the intersection of the elements of G has at most r connected components, each of which is a Q-homology cell. We show that the Helly number of F is at most r(d_Gamma+1), where d_Gamma is the smallest integer j such that every open set of Gamma has trivial Q-homology in dimension j and higher. (In particular d_{R^d} = d). This bound is best possible. We prove, in fact, a stronger theorem where small sub-families may have more than r connected components, each possibly with nontrivial homology in low dimension. As an application, we obtain several explicit bounds on Helly numbers in geometric transversal theory for which only ad hoc geometric proofs were previously known; in certain cases, the bound we obtain is better than what was previously known.Comment: Minor change

The many faces of modern combinatorics

This is a survey of recent developments in combinatorics. The goal is to give a big picture of its many interactions with other areas of mathematics, such as: group theory, representation theory, commutative algebra, geometry (including algebraic geometry), topology, probability theory, and theoretical computer science

Genus expansion for real Wishart matrices

We present an exact formula for moments and cumulants of several real compound Wishart matrices in terms of an Euler characteristic expansion, similar to the genus expansion for complex random matrices. We consider their asymptotic values in the large matrix limit: as in a genus expansion, the terms which survive in the large matrix limit are those with the greatest Euler characteristic, that is, either spheres or collections of spheres. This topological construction motivates an algebraic expression for the moments and cumulants in terms of the symmetric group. We examine the combinatorial properties distinguishing the leading order terms. By considering higher cumulants, we give a central limit-type theorem for the asymptotic distribution around the expected value