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1. Azumaya algebras and canonical components

   Ted Chinburg, Alan Reid (January 2022, International mathematics research notices)

   Let M be a compact 3-manifold and 􏲣 = π1(M). The work by Thurston and Culler– Shalen established the SL2(C) character variety X(􏲣) as fundamental tool in the study of the geometry and topology of M. This is particularly the case when M is the exterior of a hyperbolic knot K in S3. The main goals of this paper are to bring to bear tools from algebraic and arithmetic geometry to understand algebraic and number theoretic properties of the so-called canonical component of X(􏲣), as well as distinguished points on the canonical component, when 􏲣 is a knot group. In particular, we study how the theory of quaternion Azumaya algebras can be used to obtain algebraic and arithmetic information about Dehn surgeries, and perhaps of most interest, to construct new knot invariants that lie in the Brauer groups of curves over number fields. 

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2. Efficient Computation of a Semi-Algebraic Basis of the First Homology Group of a Semi-Algebraic Set

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00454-024-00626-0  

   Basu, Saugata; Percival, Sarah (September 2024, Discrete & Computational Geometry)

   Let $$\R$$ be a real closed field and $$\C$$ the algebraic closure of $$\R$$. We give an algorithm for computing a semi-algebraic basis for the first homology group, $$\HH_1(S,\mathbb{F})$$, with coefficients in a field $$\FF$$, of any given semi-algebraic set $$S \subset \R^k$$ defined by a closed formula. The complexity of the algorithm is bounded singly exponentially. More precisely, if the given quantifier-free formula involves $$s$$ polynomials whose degrees are bounded by $$d$$, the complexity of the algorithm is bounded by $$(s d)^{k^{O(1)}}$$. This algorithm generalizes well known algorithms having singly exponential complexity for computing a semi-algebraic basis of the zero-th homology group of semi-algebraic sets, which is equivalent to the problem of computing a set of points meeting every semi-algebraically connected component of the given semi-algebraic set at a unique point. It is not known how to compute such a basis for the higher homology groups with singly exponential complexity. As an intermediate step in our algorithm we construct a semi-algebraic subset $$\Gamma$$ of the given semi-algebraic set $$S$$, such that $$\HH_q(S,\Gamma) = 0$$ for $q=0,1$. We relate this construction to a basic theorem in complex algebraic geometry stating that for any affine variety $$X$$ of dimension $$n$$, there exists Zariski closed subsets \[ Z^{(n-1)} \supset \cdots \supset Z^{(1)} \supset Z^{(0)} \] with $$\dim_\C Z^{(i)} \leq i$, and $$\HH_q(X,Z^{(i)}) = 0$$ for $$0 \leq q \leq i$$. We conjecture a quantitative version of this result in the semi-algebraic category, with $$X$$ and $$Z^{(i)}$$ replaced by closed semi-algebraic sets. We make initial progress on this conjecture by proving the existence of $$Z^{(0)}$$ and $$Z^{(1)}$$ with complexity bounded singly exponentially (previously, such an algorithm was known only for constructing $$Z^{(0)}$$). 

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3. Abelian varieties and finitely generated Galois groups

   https://doi.org/10.1090/conm/767  

   Im, Bo-Hae; Larsen, Michael (April 2021, Abelian varieties and number theory)

   Jarden, Moshe; Shaska, Tony (Ed.)

   This book is a collection of articles on Abelian varieties and number theory dedicated to Gerhard Frey's 75th birthday. It contains original articles by experts in the area of arithmetic and algebraic geometry. 

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4. The genus 1 bridge number of satellite knots

   https://doi.org/10.1112/jlms.70260  

   Taylor, Scott A; Tomova, Maggy (August 2025, Journal of the London Mathematical Society)

   Abstract Let $$T$$ be a satellite knot, link, or spatial graph in a 3-manifold $$M$$ that is either $S^3$ or a lens space. Let $$\b_0$$ and $$\b_1$$ denote genus 0 and genus 1 bridge number, respectively. Suppose that $$T$$ has a companion knot $$K$$ (necessarily not the unknot) and wrapping number $$\omega$$ with respect to $$K$$. When $$K$$ is not a torus knot, we show that $$\b_1(T)\geq \omega \b_1(K)$$. There are previously known counter-examples if $$K$$ is a torus knot. Along the way, we generalize and give a new proof of Schubert's result that $$\b_0(T) \geq \omega \b_0(K)$$. We also prove versions of the theorem applicable to when $$T$$ is a "lensed satellite" and when there is a torus separating components of $$T$$. 

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5. Intersection Queries for Flat Semi-Algebraic Objects in Three Dimensions and Related Problems

   Agarwal, Pankaj K; Aronov, Boris; Ezra, Esther; Katz, Matthew J; Sharir, Micha (January 2022, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry)

   Let T be a set of n planar semi-algebraic regions in R^3 of constant complexity (e.g., triangles, disks), which we call _plates_. We wish to preprocess T into a data structure so that for a query object gamma, which is also a plate, we can quickly answer various intersection queries, such as detecting whether gamma intersects any plate of T, reporting all the plates intersected by gamma, or counting them. We also consider two simpler cases of this general setting: (i) the input objects are plates and the query objects are constant-degree algebraic arcs in R^3 (arcs, for short), or (ii) the input objects are arcs and the query objects are plates in R^3. Besides being interesting in their own right, the data structures for these two special cases form the building blocks for handling the general case. By combining the polynomial-partitioning technique with additional tools from real algebraic geometry, we obtain a variety of results with different storage and query-time bounds, depending on the complexity of the input and query objects. For example, if T is a set of plates and the query objects are arcs, we obtain a data structure that uses O^*(n^(4/3)) storage (where the O^*(...) notation hides subpolynomial factors) and answers an intersection query in O^*(n^(2/3)) time. Alternatively, by increasing the storage to O^*(n^(3/2)), the query time can be decreased to O^*(n^(rho)), where rho = (2t-3)/(3(t-1)) < 2/3 and t≤3 is the number of parameters needed to represent the query arcs. 

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