Short homotopically independent loops on surfaces

DOI10.2140/AGT.2014.14.1825MaRDI QIDQ2453740zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Steve Karam

Publication date 10 June 2014

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.1269

zbMATH Keywords

short geodesicssystoles

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Compact Riemann surfaces and uniformization (30F10)

Abstract: In this paper, we are interested in short homologically and homotopically independent loops based at the same point on Riemannian surfaces and metric graphs. First, we show that for every closed Riemannian surface of genus $ggeq2$ and area normalized to $g$, there are at least $ceillog(2g)+1$ homotopically independent loops based at the same point of length at most $Clog(g)$, where $C$ is a universal constant. On the one hand, this result substantially improves Theorem $\mathrm{5.4.}A$ of M. Gromov in cite{G1}. On the other hand, it recaptures the result of S. Sabourau on the separating systole in cite{SS} and refines his proof. Second, we show that for any two integers $bgeq2$ with $1leqnleqb$, every connected metric graph $Gamma$ of first Betti number $b$ and of length $b$ contains at least $n$ homologically independent loops based at the same point and of length at most $24(log(b)+n)$. In particular, this result extends Bollob`as-Szemer'edi-Thomason's $log(b)$ bound on the homological systole to at least $log(b)$ homologically independent loops based at the same point. Moreover, we give examples of graphs where this result is optimal.

Review text

The length of the shortest geodesic of a Riemannian manifold is called the systole of the manifold. Estimates on the lengths of short geodesics and on the number of geodesics whose lengths bounded by suitable functions have been studied by several people. One point emphasized in this paper is to find short geodesics based at one common point. For example, the main result says that for every closed Riemannian surface of genus \(g\geq 2\) and area normalized to \(g\), there are at least \(\log g+1\) homotopically independent loops based at the same point of length at most \(C \log g\), where \(C\) is a universal constant. Similar results are obtained for metric graphs.

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Cites work

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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 52737 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(9)

• Families of short cycles on Riemannian surfaces
• On graph approximations of surfaces with small area
• MINIMAL GEODESICS OF A TORUS WITH A HOLE
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2149965 (Why is no real title available?)
• Short loops in surfaces with a circular boundary component
• Short homology bases for hyperelliptic hyperbolic surfaces
• Short incompressible graphs and 2-free groups
• Some counterexamples in surface homology
• Short homology bases and partitions of Riemann surfaces

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