Pachner Move 3->3 and Affine Volume-Preserving Geometry in R^3

Matveev and Piergallini independently showed that, with a small number of known exceptions, any triangulation of a three-manifold can be transformed into any other triangulation of the same three-manifold with the same number of vertices, via a sequence of 2-3 and 3-2 moves. We can interpret this as showing that the Pachner graph of such triangulations is connected. In this paper, we extend this result to show that (again with a small number of known exceptions), the subgraph...

It is not completely unreasonable to expect that a computable function bounding the number of Pachner moves needed to change any triangulation of a given 3-manifold into any other triangulation of the same 3-manifold exists. In this paper we describe a procedure yielding an explicit formula for such a function if the 3-manifold in question is a Seifert fibred space.

We conclude the construction of the algebraic complex, consisting of spaces of differentials of Euclidean metric values, for four-dimensional piecewise-linear manifolds. Assuming that the complex is acyclic, we investigate how its torsion changes under rebuildings of the manifold triangulation. First, we write out formulas for moves 3 -> 3 and 2 <-> 4 based on the results of our two previous works, and then we study in detail moves 1 <-> 5. On this basis, we obtain the formul...

We present a consistent definition for braided ribbon networks in 3-dimensional manifolds, unifying both three and four valent networks in a single framework. We present evolution moves for these networks which are dual to the Pachner moves on simplices and present an invariant of this evolution. Finally we relate these results back to previous work in the subject.

In loop quantum gravity, states of quantum geometry are represented by classes of knotted graphs, equivalent under diffeomorphisms. Thus, it is worthwhile to enumerate and distinguish these classes. This paper looks at the case of 4-regular graphs, which have an interpretation as objects dual to triangulations of three-dimensional manifolds. Two different polynomial invariants are developed to characterize these graphs -- one inspired by the Kauffman bracket relations, and th...

This is the second in a series of papers where we construct an invariant of a four-dimensional piecewise linear manifold $M$ with a given middle cohomology class $h\in H^2(M,\mathbb C)$. This invariant is the square root of the torsion of unusual chain complex introduced in Part I (arXiv:1605.06498) of our work, multiplied by a correcting factor. Here we find this factor by studying the behavior of our construction under all four-dimensional Pachner moves, and show that it ca...

We write out some sequences of linear maps of vector spaces with fixed bases. Each term of a sequence is a linear space of differentials of metric values ascribed to the elements of a simplicial complex - a triangulation of a manifold. If the sequence turns out to be an acyclic complex then one can construct a manifold invariant out of its torsion. We demonstrate this first for three-dimensional manifolds, and then we conduct the part, related to moves 2 <-> 4, of the corresp...

It is important to have fast and effective methods for simplifying 3-manifold triangulations without losing any topological information. In theory this is difficult: we might need to make a triangulation super-exponentially more complex before we can make it smaller than its original size. Here we present experimental work suggesting that for 3-sphere triangulations the reality is far different: we never need to add more than two tetrahedra, and we never need more than a hand...

Recently, an algebraic realization of the four-dimensional Pachner move 3--3 was found in terms of Grassmann--Gaussian exponentials, and a remarkable nonlinear parameterization for it, going in terms of a $\mathbb C$-valued 2-cocycle. Here we define, for a given triangulated four-dimensional manifold and a 2-cocycle on it, an `exotic' chain complex intimately related to the mentioned parameterization, thus providing a basis for algebraic realizations of all four-dimensional P...

We explicitly construct small triangulations for a number of well-known 3-dimensional manifolds and give a brief outline of some aspects of the underlying theory of 3-manifolds and its historical development.