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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).

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 …
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
1k views

Homeomorphism historically: When did it reach its modern formulation?

Q. When did the notion of homeomorphism reach its modern formulation as a bicontinuous bijection, i.e., a continuous bijection between topological spaces whose inverse is also continuous? …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
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 …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
368 views

Why do convex polytope options constrict with dimension, rather than expand?

There are an infinite number of regular polygons in the plane, five regular polyhedra, six regular polytopes in $\mathbb{R}^4$, and then three regular polytopes in every dimension $d > 4$. There are …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
1k views

Distance between two knots

Are there some well-studied functions defining natural distance measures between two knots? One can imagine a function that counts, say, the minimum number of moves, each of which passes one strand of …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Do all combinatorially distinct fundamental polygons correspond to surfaces?

The topology of a closed surface can be constructed by identifying edges of a fundamental polygon of an even number $2n$ of edges. Labeling the edges and using $\pm 1$ exponents to indicate direction, …
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar

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