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Topology of cell complexes and manifolds, classification of manifolds (e.g. smoothing, surgery), low dimensional topology (e.g. knot theory, invariants of 4-manifolds), embedding theory, combinatorial and PL topology, geometric group theory, infinite dimensional topology (e.g. Hilbert cube manifolds, theory of retracts).

26 votes
5 answers
2k views

Complexity of random knot with vertices on sphere

Connect $n$ random points on a sphere in a cycle of segments between succesive points: I would like to know the growth rate, with respect to $n$, of the crossing number (the minimal number of crossin …
65 votes
4 answers
4k views

Tying knots with reflecting lightrays

Let a lightray bounce around inside a cube whose faces are (internal) mirrors. If its slopes are rational, it will eventually form a cycle. For example, starting with a point $p_0$ in the interior of …
37 votes
2 answers
5k views

Kervaire invariant: Why dimension 126 especially difficult?

Is there any resource that might help non-experts gains some understanding of why the Kervaire invariant problem remains open now only in dimension $126$? ($126 =2^7-2=2^{j+1}-2$; whether $\theta_j=\t …
15 votes
5 answers
3k views

Generalization of winding number to higher dimensions

Is there a natural geometric generalization of the winding number to higher dimensions? I know it primarily as an important and useful index for closed, plane curves (e.g., the Jordan Curve Theor …
6 votes
0 answers
210 views

"A typical pair of two-dimensional surfaces in four dimensions will intersect at finitely ma...

The title quotes C.H. Taubes in the Princeton Companion to Mathematics (p.404). I found this surprising despite the natural lower-dimensional analog (a typical pair of loops in $\mathbb{R}^2$ will in …
1 vote
0 answers
217 views

Patterns in local winding number sequences

This is something of a followup to an earlier question Can any sequence of consecutive integers be realized as winding numbers?, whose answer is Yes. Now I would like to define a local winding number …
8 votes
1 answer
717 views

Can any sequence of consecutive integers be realized as winding numbers?

For a closed plane curve $C$, define its sequence of winding numbers to be the sorted list of the winding numbers of each of the distinct regions of the plane demarcated by $C$. For example, this curv …
13 votes
3 answers
1k views

Random Reidemeister moves to unknot

Suppose one has a link diagram of the unknot, and applies random Reidemeister moves until the unknot is reached. Surely it requires an exponential number of moves, exponential in, say, the crossing nu …
45 votes
1 answer
2k views

Pach's "Animals": What if the genus is positive?

Janos Pach asked a deep question 23 years ago (1988) that remains unsolved today: Can every animal—a topological ball in $\mathbb{R^3}$ composed of unit cubes glued face-to-face—be reduced to a si …
17 votes
1 answer
525 views

Is $\partial X$ a sphere for $X$ a complete CAT$(0)$ space?

Let $X$ be a complete CAT$(0)$ metric space, and $\partial X$ its boundary. One way to define $\partial X$ is as the equivalence class of geodesic rays $\gamma(t), \gamma'(t)$ that remain within a co …
41 votes
1 answer
6k views

Not all manifolds can be triangulated: In which dimensions?

I know that Ciprian Manolescu has settled the triangulation conjecture in the negative: Not all manifolds can be triangulated. I've only read secondary literature on this result, which did not detail …
24 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is every rational realized as the Euler characteristic of some manifold or orbifold?

Let me first ask the question for two-dimensional compact, connected manifolds and orbifolds. Then, if the answer is No, one can remove various conditions on the dimension, and allow non-compact examp …
49 votes
3 answers
8k views

Thurston's 24 questions: All settled?

Thurston's 1982 article on three-dimensional manifolds1 ends with $24$ "open questions":       $\cdots$ Two naive questions from an outsider: (1) Have all $24$ now been resolved? (2) If so, w …
24 votes
1 answer
2k views

Building a genus-$n$ torus from cubes

I wonder if this has been studied: What is the fewest number of unit cubes from which one can build an $n$-toroid? The cubes must be glued face-to-face, and the boundary of the resulting objec …
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Which polygons have *simple* periodic billiard paths?

I know (or, rather, believe) that it remains unknown whether every polygon has a periodic billiard path. But Howard Masur proved in the 1980's that every rational polygon (vertex angles rational mult …

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