Hyperbolic Dehn filling in dimension four

We introduce and study some deformations of complete finite-volume hyperbolic four-manifolds that may be interpreted as four-dimensional analogues of Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn filling. We construct in particular an analytic path of complete, finite-volume cone four-manifolds $M_t$ that interpolates between two hyperbolic four-manifolds $M_0$ and $M_1$ with the same volume $\frac {8}3\pi^2$. The deformation looks like the familiar hyperbolic Dehn filling paths that occur in dimension three, where the cone angle of a core simple closed geodesic varies monotonically from $0$ to $2\pi$. Here, the singularity of $M_t$ is an immersed geodesic surface whose cone angles also vary monotonically from $0$ to $2\pi$. When a cone angle tends to $0$ a small core surface (a torus or Klein bottle) is drilled producing a new cusp. We show that various instances of hyperbolic Dehn fillings may arise, including one case where a degeneration occurs when the cone angles tend to $2\pi$, like in the famous figure-eight knot complement example. The construction makes an essential use of a family of four-dimensional deforming hyperbolic polytopes recently discovered by Kerckhoff and Storm.Comment: 60 pages, 23 figures. Final versio

Toric topology

We survey some results on toric topology.Comment: English translation of the Japanese article which appeared in "Sugaku" vol. 62 (2010), 386-41

On canonical triangulations of once-punctured torus bundles and two-bridge link complements

We prove the hyperbolization theorem for punctured torus bundles and two-bridge link complements by decomposing them into ideal tetrahedra which are then given hyperbolic structures, following Rivin's volume maximization principle.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology on 16 September 2006. Appendix by David Fute

Nonperturbative dynamics for abstract (p,q) string networks

We describe abstract (p,q) string networks which are the string networks of Sen without the information about their embedding in a background spacetime. The non-perturbative dynamical formulation invented for spin networks, in terms of causal evolution of dual triangulations, is applied to them. The formal transition amplitudes are sums over discrete causal histories that evolve (p,q) string networks. The dynamics depend on two free SL(2,Z) invariant functions which describe the amplitudes for the local evolution moves.Comment: Latex, 12 pages, epsfig, 7 figures, minor change

New hyperbolic 4-manifolds of low volume

We prove that there are at least 2 commensurability classes of minimal-volume hyperbolic 4-manifolds. Moreover, by applying a well-known technique due to Gromov and Piatetski-Shapiro, we build the smallest known non-arithmetic hyperbolic 4-manifold.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Added the Coxeter diagrams of the commensurability classes of the manifolds. New and better proof of Lemma 2.2. Modified statements and proofs of the main theorems: now there are two commensurabilty classes of minimal volume manifolds. Typos correcte