The Haefliger–Thurston conjecture predicts that Haefliger's classifying space for$$C^r$$-foliations of codimension$$n$$whose normal bundles are trivial is$$2n$$-connected. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture for piecewise linear (PL) foliations of codimension$$2$$. Using this, we use a version of the Mather–Thurston theorem for PL homeomorphisms due to the author to derive new homological properties for PL surface homeomorphisms. In particular, we answer the question of Epstein in dimension$$2$$and prove the simplicity of the identity component of PL surface homeomorphisms. 
                        more » 
                        « less   
                    
                            
                            Thurston’s fragmentation and c-principles
                        
                    
    
            Abstract In this paper, we generalize the original idea of Thurston for the so-called Mather-Thurston’s theorem for foliated bundles to prove new variants of this theorem for PL homeomorphisms and contactormorphisms. These versions answer questions posed by Gelfand-Fuks ([GF73, Section 5]) and Greenberg ([Gre92]) on PL foliations and Rybicki ([Ryb10, Section 11]) on contactomorphisms. The interesting point about the original Thurston’s technique compared to the better-known Segal-McDuff’s proof of the Mather-Thurston theorem is that it gives acompactly supportedc-principle theorem without knowing the relevant local statement on open balls. In the appendix, we show that Thurston’s fragmentation implies the non-abelian Poincare duality theorem and its generalization using blob complexes ([MW12, Theorem 7.3.1]). To the memory of John Mather. 
        more » 
        « less   
        
    
                            - Award ID(s):
 - 2239106
 
- PAR ID:
 - 10505690
 
- Publisher / Repository:
 - Cambridge University Press
 
- Date Published:
 
- Journal Name:
 - Forum of Mathematics, Sigma
 
- Volume:
 - 11
 
- ISSN:
 - 2050-5094
 
- Format(s):
 - Medium: X
 
- Sponsoring Org:
 - National Science Foundation
 
More Like this
- 
            
 - 
            Abstract Every Thurston map$$f\colon S^2\rightarrow S^2$$on a$$2$$-sphere$$S^2$$induces a pull-back operation on Jordan curves$$\alpha \subset S^2\smallsetminus {P_f}$$, where$${P_f}$$is the postcritical set off. Here the isotopy class$$[f^{-1}(\alpha )]$$(relative to$${P_f}$$) only depends on the isotopy class$$[\alpha ]$$. We study this operation for Thurston maps with four postcritical points. In this case, a Thurston obstruction for the mapfcan be seen as a fixed point of the pull-back operation. We show that if a Thurston mapfwith a hyperbolic orbifold and four postcritical points has a Thurston obstruction, then one can ‘blow up’ suitable arcs in the underlying$$2$$-sphere and construct a new Thurston map$$\widehat f$$for which this obstruction is eliminated. We prove that no other obstruction arises and so$$\widehat f$$is realized by a rational map. In particular, this allows for the combinatorial construction of a large class of rational Thurston maps with four postcritical points. We also study the dynamics of the pull-back operation under iteration. We exhibit a subclass of our rational Thurston maps with four postcritical points for which we can give positive answer to the global curve attractor problem.more » « less
 - 
            We study the geometry of the Thurston metric on the Teichmüller space of hyperbolic structures on a surface $$S$$ . Some of our results on the coarse geometry of this metric apply to arbitrary surfaces $$S$$ of finite type; however, we focus particular attention on the case where the surface is a once-punctured torus. In that case, our results provide a detailed picture of the infinitesimal, local, and global behavior of the geodesics of the Thurston metric, as well as an analogue of Royden’s theorem.more » « less
 - 
            Abstract The modulus of a polynomial-like (PL) map is an important invariant that controls distortion of the straightening map and, hence, geometry of the corresponding PL Julia set. Lower bounds on the modulus, calledcomplex a priori bounds, are known in a great variety of contexts. For any rational function we complement this by an upper bound for moduli of PL maps in the satellite case that dependsonly on the relative period and the degree of the PL map.This rules out a priori bounds in the satellite case with unbounded relative periods. We also apply our tools to obtain lower bounds for hyperbolic lengths of geodesics in the infinitely renormalizable case, and to show that moduli of annuli must converge to 0 for a sequence of arbitrary renormalizations, under several conditions all of which are shown to be necessary.more » « less
 - 
            Abstract We present the firstgri-band period–luminosity (PL) and period–Wesenheit (PW) relations for the fundamental mode anomalous Cepheids. These PL and PW relations were derived from a combined sample of five anomalous Cepheids in globular cluster M92 and the Large Magellanic Cloud, both of which have distance accurate to ∼1% available from literature. Ourg-band PL relation is similar to theB-band PL relation as reported in previous study. We applied our PL and PW relations to anomalous Cepheids discovered in dwarf galaxy Crater II, and found a larger but consistent distance modulus than the recent measurements based on RR Lyrae. Our calibrations ofgri-band PL and PW relations, even though less precise due to small number of anomalous Cepheids, will be useful for distance measurements to dwarf galaxies.more » « less
 
An official website of the United States government 
				
			
                                    