The spine that was no spine

MaRDI QIDQ1002482zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Alexandra Pettet, Juan Souto

Publication date 26 February 2009

Published in L'Enseignement Mathématique. 2e Série (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0170

zbMATH Keywords

\(n\)-dimensional torusmapping class groupTeichmüller space of flat metrics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Vector bundles on surfaces and higher-dimensional varieties, and their moduli (14J60) Teichmüller theory for Riemann surfaces (30F60) Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22) General geometric structures on low-dimensional manifolds (57M50) Topological transformation groups (57S99)

Abstract: Let T_n be the Teichmueller space of flat metrics on the n-dimensional torus and identify SL(n,Z) with the corresponding mapping class group. We prove that the subset Y consisting of those points at which the systoles generate the fundamental group of the torus is, for n > 4, not contractible. In particular, Y is not an SL(n,Z)-equivariant deformation retract of T_n.

Review text

For \(n \geq 2\) let \(\text{T}_{n}\) be the Teichmüller space of flat metrics with unit volume on the \(n\)-dimensional torus \(T^{n} = {\mathbb R}^{n}/{\mathbb Z}^{n}\) and identify \(SL_{n}{\mathbb Z}\) with the corresponding mapping class group. The systole \(syst(\rho)\) of a point \(\rho \in \text{T}_{n}\) is the length of the shortest homotopically essential geodesic in the flat torus \((T^{n}, \rho).\) Let \(S(\rho)\) be the set of homotopy classes of geodesics in \((T^{n}, \rho)\) with length \(syst(\rho);\) the elements in \(S(\rho)\) are known as the systoles of \((T^{n}, \rho).\) Theorem 1.1 (Ash). The subset \(X\) of \(T_n\) consisting of those points \(\rho\) with the property that \(S(\rho)\) generates a finite index subgroup of \(\pi_{1}(T^{n})\) is an \(SL_{n}{\mathbb Z}\)-equivariant spine of \(T_n,\) i.e. a deformation retract for \(\text{T}_{n}.\) The authors prove the following theorem: For \(n \geq 5,\) the subset \(Y\) of \(T_n\) consisting of extremely well-rounded points, i.e. those points \(\rho\) with the property that \(S(\rho)\) generates \(\pi_{1}(T^{n}),\) is not contractible and hence is not an \(SL_{n}{\mathbb Z}\)-equivariant spine.

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Cited in

(6)

• On the difficulty of finding spines
• Dimension rigidity of lattices in semisimple Lie groups
• Spines of minimal length
• The spineless tagless G-machine, naturally
• Failure of the well-rounded retract for outer space and Teichmüller space
• Minimality of the well-rounded retract.

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