The Geometry of the Bing Involution

Authors M. A. Freedman, Michael Starbird

Publication date 15 September 2022

Abstract: In 1952 Bing published a wild (not topologically conjugate to smooth) involution

I

of the 3-sphere

S^{3}

. But exactly how wild is it, analytically? We prove that any involution

I^{h}

, topologically conjugate to

I

, must have a nearly exponential modulus of continuity. Specifically, given any

a l p h a > 0

, there exists a sequence of

d e l t a

's converging to zero,

d e l t a > 0

, and points

x, y i n S^{3}

with dist

(x, y) < d e l t a

, yet dist

(I^{h} (x), I^{h} (y)) > e p s i l o n

, where

d e l t a^{- 1} = e^{l e f t (f r a c e p s i l o n^{- 1} l o g^{(1 + a l p h a)} (e p s i l o n^{- 1}) i g h t)}

, and dist is the usual Riemannian distance on

S^{3}

. In particular,

I^{h}

stretches distance much more than a Lipschitz function (

d e l t a^{- 1} = c e p s i l o n^{- 1}

) or a H"{o}lder function (

d e l t a^{- 1} = c^{p} r i m e (e p s i l o n^{- 1})^{p}

,

1 < p < i n f t y

). Bing's original construction and known alternatives (see text) for

I

have a modulus of continuity

d e l t a^{- 1} > c s q r t 2^{e p s i l o n^{- 1}}

, so the theorem is reasonably tight -- we prove the modulus must be at least exponential up to a polylog, whereas the truth may be fully exponential. Actually, the functional for

d e l t a^{- 1}

coming out of the proof can be chosen slightly closer to exponential than stated here (see Theorem 1). Using the same technique we analyze a large class of ``ramified Bing involutions and show, as a scholium, that given any function $f : m a t h b b R^{+} i g h t a r r o w m a t h b b R^{+}$ , no matter how rapid its growth, we can find a corresponding involution $J$ of the 3-sphere such that any topological conjugate $J^{h}$ of $J$ must have a modulus of continuity $d e l t a^{- 1} (e p s i l o n^{- 1})$ growing faster than $f$ (near infinity). There is a literature on inherent differentiability (references in text) but as far as the authors know the subject of inherent modulus of continuity is new.

This page was built for publication: The Geometry of the Bing Involution

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6410934)