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9 votes
1 answer
793 views

Properties a triangulation must have in order to describe a manifold

I am mainly interested in the $3$-dimensional case. It is a well-known fact, following from the work of E. E. Moise and R. H. Bing in the 1950s, that every $3$-dimensional topological manifold (with ...
5 votes
2 answers
222 views

$\mathbb{CP}(2)$ from gluing boundary of 4-ball

Many manifolds can be obtained from gluing the boundary of a ball. For example, $\mathbb{RP}(2)$ is obtained from gluing the two edges of a bi-gon (2-ball). Or, lens spaces are obtained from a 3-cell ...
5 votes
1 answer
380 views

existence of triangulations of manifolds

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold. Let $K$ be a simplicial complex. Let ${\rm sd}(K)$ be the sub-division of $K$. Suppose there exists a simplicial sub-complex $K_1$ of ${\rm sd}(K)$ such that $K_1$ ...
9 votes
0 answers
186 views

What is an intuitive explanation for a manifold to have no triangulation?

It is known that some topological manifolds, even compact and simply-connected ones, do not have admit a triangulation. One example is the E8 manifold in a dimension as low as $4$. I am trying to ...
8 votes
2 answers
630 views

Presentations of exotic 4-manifolds

TLDR I want to see more examples of exotic $4$-manifold (hopefully connected, simply connected, oriented, and closed). Are there known presentations of $4$-manifolds $M$ with exotic structures, ...
5 votes
0 answers
190 views

Triangulating piecewise-linear manifolds

Question 1: Is this the mainstream definition of a PL-manifold? Definition. A PL-manifold is a manifold with an atlas $(\varphi_i)_{i\in I}$ in which all transition maps $\varphi_j\circ\varphi_i^{-1}$ ...
3 votes
0 answers
93 views

Minimal set of geometric moves in various equivalence classes of triangulated geometries

I would like to get to know what is the minimal set of geometric changes "aka. moves" (topology preserving modifications / Pachner moves / bistellar moves) that can transform any 3-...
7 votes
1 answer
260 views

Bordism for oriented triangulable manifolds without smooth differentiable structures

We know the bordism group for oriented smooth differentiable structures such as $\Omega_d^{SO}$ that requires the special orthogonal group structure on the tangent bundle $TM$ of manifold $M$. $$\...
6 votes
2 answers
370 views

Does every triangulable manifold have a vertex-transitive triangulation?

Does every triangulable manifold have a vertex-transitive triangulation? When I talk about a vertex-transitive triangulation of a manifold, I mean in the sense of realizing a manifold homeomorphically ...
3 votes
1 answer
255 views

Handle attachment information from Morse function and triangulation

First, allow me to setup the relevant information. It is well known that a Morse function $f:M\to\mathbb{R}$ induces a handle decomposition of $M$. For simplicity, let's restrict for now to the ...
5 votes
3 answers
245 views

Ideal triangulations of $3$-manifolds with "cusps" of genus $\ge 2$

Typically when one thinks about ideal triangulations of a $3$-manifold the link of each ideal vertex is a circle, so the ideal points correspond to toroidal cusps; alternatively, one can truncate the ...
0 votes
1 answer
518 views

Distance between two points using triangulation

Suppose we have two points $p_1$ and $p_2$ in a metric space with unknown dimensionality, with no way to directly compute the distance between them, e.g. no coordinates. Say we can randomly sample a ...
0 votes
1 answer
101 views

A question on relation of different triangulations of a triangulable space

Suppose we get two triangulations of a manifold with boundary $M$ such that the triangulation is compatible with boundary, i.e. the restriction on the boundary is itself a triangulation, is it these ...
4 votes
1 answer
304 views

Do combinatorially equivalent polytopes have the same triangulations?

A triangulation of a convex polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^n$ is a partition of $P$ into $n$-simplices $\{\Delta_1,...,\Delta_m\}$ each of which has all its vertices among the vertices of $P$. A polytope ...
1 vote
1 answer
135 views

Annulus theorem for pseudomanifolds

Lets say I take an arbitrary closed and smooth $d$-manifolds $\mathcal{M}$. Now, it is a well-known fact that whenever I take two (sufficiently nice embedded) closed $d$-balls $B_{1}$ and $B_{2}$ in $\...
9 votes
1 answer
484 views

Refining a triangulation

I'm reading Thurston's article "Shapes of polyhedra and triangulations of the sphere." In the introduction he claims the following: "${}^{(1)}$There are procedures to refine and modify ...
12 votes
0 answers
229 views

3-manifolds with stacked links

Stacked spheres A triangulation of a 2-dimensional sphere is called a stacked sphere if it is obtained inductively from the boundary of a 3-simplex by deleting a 2-face (triangle) $T$ adding a new ...
4 votes
1 answer
418 views

Triangulation of a simplex

I am looking for a triangulation of an $n$-dimensional simplex such that all sub-simplices are of comparable size, and are "as close as possible" to a regular simplex : the latter property ...
4 votes
1 answer
196 views

Ideal triangulation of hyperbolic 3-manifold with generic mapping class group

I am from physics background so I apologize in advance if my question is trivial. Kojima proves for every finite group $G$, there is a hyperbolic 3-manifold such that its mapping class group equals $G$...
10 votes
2 answers
751 views

On Gromov's proof of the systolic inequality $\operatorname{Sys}_1(M)\leq 6\operatorname{FillRad}(M)$

In the page 10 of the paper "Filling Riemannian manifolds" by Gromov (ProjetEuclid link), the author proves the following inequality (1.2) relating the systole and the filling radius of manifolds. $$\...
6 votes
0 answers
162 views

Can $X_4 \times S^1$, $X_4 \times I^1$, or $X_4 \times \mathbb{R}^1$ be a triangulable, PL or DIFF manifold, if $X_4$ is a non-triangulable manifold? [duplicate]

Question: If $X_4$ is a non-triangulable topological (TOP) manifold, can $X_4 \times S^1$, $X_4 \times I^1$, or $X_4 \times \mathbb{R}^1$ be a triangulable manifold? can $X_4 \times S^1$, $X_4 \...
6 votes
0 answers
209 views

If $X_d$ is a non-triangulable manifold, can $X_d \times T^k$, $X_d \times I^k$, or $X_d \times \mathbb{R}^k$ be a triangulable manifold?

If $X_d$ is a non-triangulable manifold, can $X_d \times T^k$, $X_d \times I^k$, or $X_d \times \mathbb{R}^k$ always be a triangulable manifold? Let $X_d$ be a $d$-manifold which is NOT a ...
4 votes
0 answers
106 views

Retriangulating manifolds via triangulations of low local complexity

Suppose that $M$ is closed, connected PL $n$-manifold. We say that a triangulation of $M$ has local complexity at most $L$ if every zero-cell of $T$ meets at most $L$ $n$-simplices. (An alternative ...
12 votes
1 answer
738 views

Local behavior of smooth triangulations

If $M$ is a smooth $n$- manifold, a smooth triangulation is defined to be a homeomorphism from a simplicial complex $K$ to $M$ whose restriction to each simplex is a smooth embedding. It's a well-...
8 votes
0 answers
170 views

Is there a combinatorial representation of general topological manifolds similar to triangulations?

Piece-wise linear manifolds are combinatorially represented by simplicial complexes modulo Pachner moves. However, for dimensions greater than $3$, the notions of piece-wise linear and topological ...
12 votes
3 answers
872 views

Can triangulations (or some related combinatorial structure) distinguish smooth structures on $RP^4$?

There are exotic versions of $RP^4$, constructed by Cappell-Shaneson, which are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to the standard $RP^4$. One way to distinguish them is via the $\eta$ invariant of $...
8 votes
0 answers
184 views

Are triangulations of n-dimensional manifolds determined by lower-dimensional skeleta?

Suppose that $M$ is an $n$-dimensional manifold equipped with a triangulation $T$. Given $n\ge 1$, in order to recover $T$ (up to an isomorphism of simplicial complexes) one needs to know at least ...
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

On Thurston's triangulations of sphere

I have two questions from Thurston's paper [1]. In the paper [1], Thurston talks about classifying certain classes of triangulations of the sphere. Here a triangulation of a sphere a Topological ...
3 votes
0 answers
221 views

Category of Manifolds and Maps: TOP $\supseteq$ TRI $\supseteq$ PL $\supseteq$ DIFF? [closed]

Please let me denote the following (TOP) topological manifolds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_manifold (PDIFF), for piecewise differentiable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDIFF (PL) ...
6 votes
1 answer
466 views

Are triangulations of compact manifolds PL homeomorphic?

I have frequently come across the statement "Any two triangulations of a compact n-manifold are related by bistellar moves" attributed to Pachner via Lickorish's paper 'Simplicial moves on complexes ...
12 votes
0 answers
133 views

Finite list of neighborhoods to approximate any finite simplicial complex

It is easy to see that any (locally finite) graph is homotopy-equivalent to a trivalent graph. Moreover, this can be achieved by a local construction - take neighborhoods of vertices of degree $> 3$...
13 votes
1 answer
899 views

Critical dimensions D for "smooth manifolds iff triangulable manifolds"

I am aware that at least for lower dimensions, "smooth manifolds iff triangulable manifolds" at least for dimensions below a certain critical dimensions D. My question is that for For ...
14 votes
1 answer
908 views

Comparing layered triangulations of 3-manifolds which fiber over the circle.

I am sorry but I am reposting this question because I wasn't logged in when I first asked it. Ian Agol has produced a method to build an ideal layered triangulation of a hyperbolic 3-manifold which ...
3 votes
0 answers
102 views

Find a certain triangulation subordinate to a given covering of a manifold

Let $\{U_\alpha\}$ be a covering of a smooth manifold $M$. Replacing it by a refined covering if necessary, we may assume some good properties of it, like, (1) any intersection $\cap_{i=1}^k U_{\...
5 votes
0 answers
226 views

Are there non-cuspy triangulations of smooth manifolds?

In (as it turned out my misunderstanding of) the literature, a "smooth triangulation" seems to mean: a homeomorphism from a simplicial complex, such that on each simplex the map can be extended to a ...
20 votes
0 answers
540 views

Homeomorphisms of the sphere mapping a geodesic triangulation to another one

Consider the standard Riemannian 2-sphere $S$, equipped with a geodesic triangulation $T$. Let $L(S,T)$ be the space of homeomorphisms of $S$ which map $T$ to a geodesic triangulation. What is the ...
11 votes
2 answers
326 views

Triangulation with simplices of same volume

Let $M$ be a Riemannian smooth compact manifold. It is known that $M$ has a triangulation, for any dimension. But do we know if there exists a triangulation such that all simplices have same volume ? ...
10 votes
0 answers
742 views

Can any smooth triangulation of a smooth manifold be blurred?

For the purposes of this question, let's say that a blurring of a smooth triangulation $T$ of a smooth manifold $X$ is a smooth homotopy $h\colon [0,1] \times X \to X$ such that $h_0=\operatorname{id}...
5 votes
1 answer
272 views

Is every triangulation of a Euclidean ball by convex tetrahedra shellable?

Suppose you are given a 3-ball $B$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that is bounded by a PL sphere, a triangulation $T$ of $B$ by Euclidean tetrahedra. Is that triangulation necessarily shellable? I know that if $...
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

How can gauge theory techniques be useful to study when topological manifolds can be triangulated?

I was reading a review article arXiv:1310.7644 and it was explained there that in the last few years it was proven that there are topological manifolds of dimension greater than four that cannot be ...
6 votes
1 answer
708 views

Triangulation of Surfaces without Jordan-Schoenflies

Does anyone know of a proof of the fact that any 2-manifold can be triangulated that does not use the Jordan-Curve Theorem or the Jordan-Schoenflies Theorem? Thanks for your help
7 votes
2 answers
335 views

Comparing different layered structures for fibered 3-manifolds: example request.

Let's consider a fibering hyperbolic 3-manifold obtained as a mapping torus over some hyperbolic surface with pseudo-Anosov monodromy, and let's suppose that the surface is punctured at the singular ...
8 votes
3 answers
793 views

Efficient topological triangulations of non-convex polyhedra

Does every polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with $n$ triangular facets have a topological triangulation with complexity $O(n)$? Suppose $P$ is a non-convex polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with $n$ ...