|
Thurston Geometrization Conjecture
In mathematics, Thurston's geometrization conjecture states that each of certain three-dimensional topological spaces has a unique geometric structure that can be associated with it. It is an analogue of the uniformization theorem for two-dimensional surfaces, which states that every simply connected Riemann surface can be given one of three geometries ( Euclidean, spherical, or hyperbolic). In three dimensions, it is not always possible to assign a single geometry to a whole topological space. Instead, the geometrization conjecture states that every closed 3-manifold can be decomposed in a canonical way into pieces that each have one of eight types of geometric structure. The conjecture was proposed by , and implies several other conjectures, such as the Poincaré conjecture and Thurston's elliptization conjecture. Thurston's hyperbolization theorem implies that Haken manifolds satisfy the geometrization conjecture. Thurston announced a proof in the 1980s and since t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geometric Topology
In mathematics, geometric topology is the study of manifolds and maps between them, particularly embeddings of one manifold into another. History Geometric topology as an area distinct from algebraic topology may be said to have originated in the 1935 classification of lens spaces by Reidemeister torsion, which required distinguishing spaces that are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic. This was the origin of ''simple'' homotopy theory. The use of the term geometric topology to describe these seems to have originated rather recently. Differences between low-dimensional and high-dimensional topology Manifolds differ radically in behavior in high and low dimension. High-dimensional topology refers to manifolds of dimension 5 and above, or in relative terms, embeddings in codimension 3 and above. Low-dimensional topology is concerned with questions in dimensions up to 4, or embeddings in codimension up to 2. Dimension 4 is special, in that in some respects (topologica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haken Manifold
In mathematics, a Haken manifold is a compact, P²-irreducible 3-manifold that is sufficiently large, meaning that it contains a properly embedded two-sided incompressible surface. Sometimes one considers only orientable Haken manifolds, in which case a Haken manifold is a compact, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold that contains an orientable, incompressible surface. A 3-manifold finitely covered by a Haken manifold is said to be virtually Haken. The Virtually Haken conjecture asserts that every compact, irreducible 3-manifold with infinite fundamental group is virtually Haken. This conjecture was proven by Ian Agol. Haken manifolds were introduced by . proved that Haken manifolds have a hierarchy, where they can be split up into 3-balls along incompressible surfaces. Haken also showed that there was a finite procedure to find an incompressible surface if the 3-manifold had one. gave an algorithm to determine if a 3-manifold was Haken. Normal surfaces are ubiquitous in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interior (topology)
In mathematics, specifically in general topology, topology, the interior of a subset of a topological space is the Union (set theory), union of all subsets of that are Open set, open in . A point that is in the interior of is an interior point of . The interior of is the Absolute complement, complement of the closure (topology), closure of the complement of . In this sense interior and closure are Duality_(mathematics)#Duality_in_logic_and_set_theory, dual notions. The exterior of a set is the complement of the closure of ; it consists of the points that are in neither the set nor its boundary (topology), boundary. The interior, boundary, and exterior of a subset together partition of a set, partition the whole space into three blocks (or fewer when one or more of these is empty set, empty). Definitions Interior point If is a subset of a Euclidean space, then is an interior point of if there exists an open ball centered at which is completely contained in . (This is i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torus
In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not touch the circle, the surface has a ring shape and is called a torus of revolution. If the axis of revolution is tangent to the circle, the surface is a horn torus. If the axis of revolution passes twice through the circle, the surface is a spindle torus. If the axis of revolution passes through the center of the circle, the surface is a degenerate torus, a double-covered sphere. If the revolved curve is not a circle, the surface is called a ''toroid'', as in a square toroid. Real-world objects that approximate a torus of revolution include swim rings, inner tubes and ringette rings. Eyeglass lenses that combine spherical and cylindrical correction are toric lenses. A torus should not be confused with a '' solid torus'', which is formed by r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orientability
In mathematics, orientability is a property of some topological spaces such as real vector spaces, Euclidean spaces, surfaces, and more generally manifolds that allows a consistent definition of "clockwise" and "counterclockwise". A space is orientable if such a consistent definition exists. In this case, there are two possible definitions, and a choice between them is an orientation of the space. Real vector spaces, Euclidean spaces, and spheres are orientable. A space is non-orientable if "clockwise" is changed into "counterclockwise" after running through some loops in it, and coming back to the starting point. This means that a geometric shape, such as , that moves continuously along such a loop is changed into its own mirror image . A Möbius strip is an example of a non-orientable space. Various equivalent formulations of orientability can be given, depending on the desired application and level of generality. Formulations applicable to general topological manifolds o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Manifold
In topology, a branch of mathematics, a prime manifold is an ''n''-manifold that cannot be expressed as a non-trivial connected sum of two ''n''-manifolds. Non-trivial means that neither of the two is an ''n''-sphere. A similar notion is that of an irreducible ''n''-manifold, which is one in which any embedded (''n'' − 1)-sphere bounds an embedded ''n''- ball. Implicit in this definition is the use of a suitable category, such as the category of differentiable manifolds or the category of piecewise-linear manifolds. The notions of irreducibility in algebra and manifold theory are related. An irreducible manifold is prime, although the converse does not hold. From an algebraist's perspective, prime manifolds should be called "irreducible"; however the topologist (in particular the 3-manifold topologist) finds the definition above more useful. The only compact, connected 3-manifolds that are prime but not irreducible are the trivial 2-sphere bundle over the circle S1 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connected Sum
In mathematics, specifically in topology, the operation of connected sum is a geometric modification on manifolds. Its effect is to join two given manifolds together near a chosen point on each. This construction plays a key role in the classification of closed surfaces. More generally, one can also join manifolds together along identical submanifolds; this generalization is often called the fiber sum. There is also a closely related notion of a connected sum on knots, called the knot sum or composition of knots. Connected sum at a point A connected sum of two ''m''-dimensional manifolds is a manifold formed by deleting a ball inside each manifold and gluing together the resulting boundary spheres. If both manifolds are oriented, there is a unique connected sum defined by having the gluing map reverse orientation. Although the construction uses the choice of the balls, the result is unique up to homeomorphism. One can also make this operation work in the smooth categor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Decomposition (3-manifold)
In mathematics, the prime decomposition theorem for 3-manifolds states that every compact, orientable 3-manifold is the connected sum of a unique (up to homeomorphism) finite collection of prime 3-manifolds. A manifold is ''prime'' if it cannot be presented as a connected sum of more than one manifold, none of which is the sphere of the same dimension. This condition is necessary since for any manifold M of dimension n it is true that M = M \# S^n. (where M \# S^n means the connected sum of M and S^n). If P is a prime 3-manifold then either it is S^2 \times S^1 or the non-orientable S^2 bundle over S^1, or it is irreducible, which means that any embedded 2-sphere bounds a ball. So the theorem can be restated to say that there is a unique connected sum decomposition into irreducible 3-manifolds and fiber bundles of S^2 over S^1. The prime decomposition holds also for non-orientable 3-manifolds, but the uniqueness statement must be modified slightly: every compact, non-orientable 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manifold
In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open subset of n-dimensional Euclidean space. One-dimensional manifolds include lines and circles, but not lemniscates. Two-dimensional manifolds are also called surfaces. Examples include the plane, the sphere, and the torus, and also the Klein bottle and real projective plane. The concept of a manifold is central to many parts of geometry and modern mathematical physics because it allows complicated structures to be described in terms of well-understood topological properties of simpler spaces. Manifolds naturally arise as solution sets of systems of equations and as graphs of functions. The concept has applications in computer-graphics given the need to associate pictures with coordinates (e.g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compact Space
In mathematics, specifically general topology, compactness is a property that seeks to generalize the notion of a closed and bounded subset of Euclidean space by making precise the idea of a space having no "punctures" or "missing endpoints", i.e. that the space not exclude any ''limiting values'' of points. For example, the open interval (0,1) would not be compact because it excludes the limiting values of 0 and 1, whereas the closed interval ,1would be compact. Similarly, the space of rational numbers \mathbb is not compact, because it has infinitely many "punctures" corresponding to the irrational numbers, and the space of real numbers \mathbb is not compact either, because it excludes the two limiting values +\infty and -\infty. However, the ''extended'' real number line ''would'' be compact, since it contains both infinities. There are many ways to make this heuristic notion precise. These ways usually agree in a metric space, but may not be equivalent in other topologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spherical Space Form Conjecture
In geometric topology, the spherical space form conjecture (now a theorem) states that a finite group acting on the 3-sphere is conjugate to a group of isometries of the 3-sphere. History The conjecture was posed by Heinz Hopf in 1926 after determining the fundamental groups of three-dimensional spherical space forms as a generalization of the Poincaré conjecture to the non-simply connected case. Status The conjecture is implied by Thurston's geometrization conjecture, which was proven by Grigori Perelman in 2003. The conjecture was independently proven for groups whose actions have fixed points—this special case is known as the Smith conjecture. It is also proven for various groups acting without fixed points, such as cyclic groups whose orders are a power of two (George Livesay, Robert Myers) and cyclic groups of order 3 ( J. Hyam Rubinstein). See also *Killing–Hopf theorem In geometry, the Killing–Hopf theorem states that complete connected Riemannian manifolds of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clay Mathematics Institute
The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) is a private, non-profit foundation (nonprofit), foundation dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematics, mathematical knowledge. Formerly based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the corporate address is now in Denver, Colorado. CMI's scientific activities are managed from the President's office in Oxford, United Kingdom. It gives out various awards and sponsorships to promising mathematicians. The institute was founded in 1998 through the sponsorship of Boston businessman Landon T. Clay. Harvard University, Harvard mathematician Arthur Jaffe was the first president of CMI. While the institute is best known for its Millennium Prize Problems, it carries out a wide range of activities, including a postdoctoral program (ten Clay Research Fellows are supported currently), conferences, workshops, and summer schools. Governance The institute is run according to a standard structure comprising a scientific advisory committee that decides on gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
