mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, Seifert–Weber space (introduced by

Herbert Seifert Herbert Karl Johannes Seifert (; 27 May 1897, Bernstadt – 1 October 1996, Heidelberg) was a German mathematician known for his work in topology. Biography Seifert was born in Bernstadt auf dem Eigen, but soon moved to Bautzen, where he attend ...

and Constantin Weber) is a

closed Closed may refer to: Mathematics * Closure (mathematics), a set, along with operations, for which applying those operations on members always results in a member of the set * Closed set, a set which contains all its limit points * Closed interval, ...

hyperbolic 3-manifold In mathematics, more precisely in topology and differential geometry, a hyperbolic 3–manifold is a manifold of dimension 3 equipped with a hyperbolic metric, that is a Riemannian metric which has all its sectional curvatures equal to -1. It ...

. It is also known as Seifert–Weber dodecahedral space and hyperbolic dodecahedral space. It is one of the first discovered examples of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds. It is constructed by gluing each face of a

dodecahedron In geometry, a dodecahedron (Greek , from ''dōdeka'' "twelve" + ''hédra'' "base", "seat" or "face") or duodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the regular dodecahedron with regular pentagon ...

to its opposite in a way that produces a closed 3-manifold. There are three ways to do this gluing consistently. Opposite faces are misaligned by 1/10 of a turn, so to match them they must be rotated by 1/10, 3/10 or 5/10 turn; a rotation of 3/10 gives the Seifert–Weber space. Rotation of 1/10 gives the

Poincaré homology sphere Poincaré is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), French physicist, mathematician and philosopher of science * Henriette Poincaré (1858-1943), wife of Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré * Luci ...

, and rotation by 5/10 gives 3-dimensional

real projective space In mathematics, real projective space, denoted or is the topological space of lines passing through the origin 0 in It is a compact, smooth manifold of dimension , and is a special case of a Grassmannian space. Basic properties Construction A ...

. With the 3/10-turn gluing pattern, the edges of the original dodecahedron are glued to each other in groups of five. Thus, in the Seifert–Weber space, each edge is surrounded by five pentagonal faces, and the

dihedral angle A dihedral angle is the angle between two intersecting planes or half-planes. In chemistry, it is the clockwise angle between half-planes through two sets of three atoms, having two atoms in common. In solid geometry, it is defined as the uni ...

between these pentagons is 72°. This does not match the 117° dihedral angle of a regular dodecahedron in Euclidean space, but in

hyperbolic space In mathematics, hyperbolic space of dimension n is the unique simply connected, n-dimensional Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature equal to -1. It is homogeneous, and satisfies the stronger property of being a symmetric space. Th ...

there exist regular dodecahedra with any dihedral angle between 60° and 117°, and the hyperbolic dodecahedron with dihedral angle 72° may be used to give the Seifert–Weber space a geometric structure as a hyperbolic manifold. It is a (finite volume) quotient space of the (non-finite volume)

order-5 dodecahedral honeycomb In hyperbolic geometry, the order-5 dodecahedral honeycomb is one of four compact regular space-filling tessellations (or honeycombs) in hyperbolic 3-space. With Schläfli symbol it has five dodecahedral cells around each edge, and each vertex ...

, a regular

tessellation A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane (mathematics), plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to high-dimensional ...

hyperbolic 3-space In mathematics, hyperbolic space of dimension n is the unique simply connected, n-dimensional Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature equal to -1. It is homogeneous, and satisfies the stronger property of being a symmetric space. ...

by dodecahedra with this dihedral angle. The Seifert–Weber space is a rational homology sphere, and its first homology group is isomorphic to

\mathbb Z_5^3

William Thurston William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds. Thurston ...

conjectured that the Seifert–Weber space is not a

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 ...

, that is, it does not contain any incompressible surfaces; proved the conjecture with the aid of their computer software Regina.

References

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External links

Regina – Support Data: Weber-Seifert dodecahedral space

The Weber–Seifert dodecahedral space: Answering a computational challenge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seifert-Weber Space 3-manifolds Riemannian geometry