Topological surfaces as gridded surfaces in geometrical spaces (Q2024066)

The authors discuss embeddings of surfaces in a cubical decomposition of Euclidean as well as hyperbolic 3- and 4-dimensional space. A cubical decomposition of a space is a subdivision of the space into cubes. A surface is called gridded if it can be embedded either in the 2-skeleton of the cubulation of \( \mathbb{R}{^i} \) for \(i\) = 3, 4 or embedded in the hyperbolic cubic honeycomb of hyperbolic space \( \mathbb{H}{^i} \) for \(i\) = 3, 4. The authors show that all connected surfaces without boundary can be gridded in \( \mathbb{R}{^4} \) and all orientable connected surfaces can be gridded in \( \mathbb{R}{^3} \). More precisely it is proved that any connected surface \(S\) without boundary is homeomorphic to a gridded surface \(C\) such that if \(S\) is orientable then \(C\) is contained in the scaffolding of the canonical cubulation \{4, 3, 4\} of \( \mathbb{R}{^3} \), and if \(S\) is non-orientable then \(C\) is contained in the scaffolding of the canonical cubulation \{4, 3, 3, 4\} of \( \mathbb{R}{^4} \). It is also shown that any connected surface without boundary is homeomorphic to a gridded surface in \{4, 3, 3, 5\} of \( \mathbb{H}{^4} \). The main tools used to prove these results are: the set of ends of a surface, the tree of life, the pruned tree of life and pairs of pants etc. The authors construct all orientable surfaces as gridded surfaces on the hyperbolic cubic honeycomb \{4, 3, 5\} of the hyperbolic space \( \mathbb{H}{^3} \). Results like the pair of pants is a gridded surface in \{4, 3, 3, 5\} of \( \mathbb{H}{^4} \), the tree of life is a gridded surface in \{4, 3, 3, 5\} of \( \mathbb{H}{^4} \), the projective plane is a gridded surface in \{4, 3, 3, 5\} of \( \mathbb{H}{^4} \) are also proved. The construction of the projective plane as a gridded surface in \{4, 3, 3, 4\} in \( \mathbb{R}{^4} \) is also given.