90 research outputs found
Forgetful maps between Deligne-Mostow ball quotients
We study forgetful maps between Deligne-Mostow moduli spaces of weighted
points on P^1, and classify the forgetful maps that extend to a map of
orbifolds between the stable completions. The cases where this happens include
the Livn\'e fibrations and the Mostow/Toledo maps between complex hyperbolic
surfaces. They also include a retraction of a 3-dimensional ball quotient onto
one of its 1-dimensional totally geodesic complex submanifolds
Quadri-tilings of the plane
We introduce {\em quadri-tilings} and show that they are in bijection with
dimer models on a {\em family} of graphs arising from rhombus
tilings. Using two height functions, we interpret a sub-family of all
quadri-tilings, called {\em triangular quadri-tilings}, as an interface model
in dimension 2+2. Assigning "critical" weights to edges of , we prove an
explicit expression, only depending on the local geometry of the graph ,
for the minimal free energy per fundamental domain Gibbs measure; this solves a
conjecture of \cite{Kenyon1}. We also show that when edges of are
asymptotically far apart, the probability of their occurrence only depends on
this set of edges. Finally, we give an expression for a Gibbs measure on the
set of {\em all} triangular quadri-tilings whose marginals are the above Gibbs
measures, and conjecture it to be that of minimal free energy per fundamental
domain.Comment: Revised version, minor changes. 30 pages, 13 figure
Geometry and observables in (2+1)-gravity
We review the geometrical properties of vacuum spacetimes in (2+1)-gravity
with vanishing cosmological constant. We explain how these spacetimes are
characterised as quotients of their universal cover by holonomies. We explain
how this description can be used to clarify the geometrical interpretation of
the fundamental physical variables of the theory, holonomies and Wilson loops.
In particular, we discuss the role of Wilson loop observables as the generators
of the two fundamental transformations that change the geometry of
(2+1)-spacetimes, grafting and earthquake. We explain how these variables can
be determined from realistic measurements by an observer in the spacetime.Comment: Talk given at 2nd School and Workshop on Quantum Gravity and Quantum
Geometry (Corfu, September 13-20 2009); 10 pages, 13 eps figure
Pattern densities in fluid dimer models
In this paper, we introduce a family of observables for the dimer model on a
bi-periodic bipartite planar graph, called pattern density fields. We study the
scaling limit of these objects for liquid and gaseous Gibbs measures of the
dimer model, and prove that they converge to a linear combination of a
derivative of the Gaussian massless free field and an independent white noise.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figure
Degenerations of ideal hyperbolic triangulations
Let M be a cusped 3-manifold, and let T be an ideal triangulation of M. The
deformation variety D(T), a subset of which parameterises (incomplete)
hyperbolic structures obtained on M using T, is defined and compactified by
adding certain projective classes of transversely measured singular
codimension-one foliations of M. This leads to a combinatorial and geometric
variant of well-known constructions by Culler, Morgan and Shalen concerning the
character variety of a 3-manifold.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures; minor changes; to appear in Mathematische
Zeitschrif
Geometry, topology and dynamics of geodesic flows on noncompact polygonal surfaces
We establish the background for the study of geodesics on noncompact
polygonal surfaces. For illustration, we study the recurrence of geodesics on
-periodic polygonal surfaces. We prove, in particular, that almost all
geodesics on a topologically typical -periodic surface with boundary are
recurrent.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures. To be published in V. V. Kozlov's Festschrif
Thurston's pullback map on the augmented Teichm\"uller space and applications
Let be a postcritically finite branched self-cover of a 2-dimensional
topological sphere. Such a map induces an analytic self-map of a
finite-dimensional Teichm\"uller space. We prove that this map extends
continuously to the augmented Teichm\"uller space and give an explicit
construction for this extension. This allows us to characterize the dynamics of
Thurston's pullback map near invariant strata of the boundary of the augmented
Teichm\"uller space. The resulting classification of invariant boundary strata
is used to prove a conjecture by Pilgrim and to infer further properties of
Thurston's pullback map. Our approach also yields new proofs of Thurston's
theorem and Pilgrim's Canonical Obstruction theorem.Comment: revised version, 28 page
B^F Theory and Flat Spacetimes
We propose a reduced constrained Hamiltonian formalism for the exactly
soluble theory of flat connections and closed two-forms over
manifolds with topology . The reduced phase space
variables are the holonomies of a flat connection for loops which form a basis
of the first homotopy group , and elements of the second
cohomology group of with value in the Lie algebra . When
, and if the two-form can be expressed as , for some
vierbein field , then the variables represent a flat spacetime. This is not
always possible: We show that the solutions of the theory generally represent
spacetimes with ``global torsion''. We describe the dynamical evolution of
spacetimes with and without global torsion, and classify the flat spacetimes
which admit a locally homogeneous foliation, following Thurston's
classification of geometric structures.Comment: 21 pp., Mexico Preprint ICN-UNAM-93-1
Distances on Lozenge Tilings
International audienceIn this paper, a structural property of the set of lozenge tilings of a 2n-gon is highlighted. We introduce a simple combinatorial value called Hamming-distance, which is a lower bound for the flipdistance (i.e. the number of necessary local transformations involving three lozenges) between two given tilings. It is here proven that, for n5, We show that there is some deficient pairs of tilings for which the flip connection needs more flips than the combinatorial lower bound indicates
Peripheral fillings of relatively hyperbolic groups
A group theoretic version of Dehn surgery is studied. Starting with an
arbitrary relatively hyperbolic group we define a peripheral filling
procedure, which produces quotients of by imitating the effect of the Dehn
filling of a complete finite volume hyperbolic 3--manifold on the
fundamental group . The main result of the paper is an algebraic
counterpart of Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn surgery theorem. We also show that
peripheral subgroups of 'almost' have the Congruence Extension Property and
the group is approximated (in an algebraic sense) by its quotients obtained
by peripheral fillings. Various applications of these results are discussed.Comment: The difference with the previous version is that Proposition 3.2 is
proved for quasi--geodesics instead of geodesics. This allows to simplify the
exposition in the last section. To appear in Invent. Mat
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