We construct a natural framed weight system on chord diagrams from the curvature tensor of any pseudo-Riemannian symmetric space. These weight systems are of Lie algebra type and realized by the action of the holonomy Lie algebra on a tangent space. Among the Lie algebra weight systems, they are exactly characterized by having the symmetries of the Riemann curvature tensor.
A classic theorem of Kazhdan and Margulis states that for any semisimple Lie group without compact factors, there is a positive lower bound on the covolume of lattices. H. C. Wangs subsequent quantitative analysis showed that the fundamental domain of any lattice contains a ball whose radius depends only on the group itself. A direct consequence is a positive minimum volume for orbifolds modeled on the corresponding symmetric space. However, sharp bounds are known only for hyperbolic orbifolds of dimensions two and three, and recently for quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds of all dimensions. As in arXiv:0911.4712 and arXiv:1205.2011, this article combines H. C. Wangs radius estimate with an improved upper sectional curvature bound for a canonical left-invariant metric on a real semisimple Lie group and uses Gunthers volume comparison theorem to deduce an explicit uniform lower volume bound for arbitrary orbifold quotients of a given irreducible symmetric spaces of non-compact type. The numerical bound for the octonionic hyperbolic plane is the first such bound to be given. For (real) hyperbolic orbifolds of dimension greater than three, the bounds are an improvement over what was previously known.
C. Giller proposed an invariant of ribbon 2-knots in S^4 based on a type of skein relation for a projection to R^3. In certain cases, this invariant is equal to the Alexander polynomial for the 2-knot. Gillers invariant is, however, a symmetric polynomial -- which the Alexander polynomial of a 2-knot need not be. After modifying a 2-knot into a Montesinos twin in a natural way, we show that Gillers invariant is related to the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the exterior of the twin, glued to the complement of a fiber in E(2).
We prove a continuity property for ending invariants of convergent sequences of Kleinian surface groups. We also analyze the bounded curve sets of such groups and show that their projections to non-annular subsurfaces lie a bounded Hausdorff distance from geodesics joining the projections of the ending invariants.
We construct compactifications of Riemannian locally symmetric spaces arising as quotients by Anosov representations. These compactifications are modeled on generalized Satake compactifications and, in certain cases, on maximal Satake compactifications. We deduce that these Riemannian locally symmetric spaces are topologically tame, i.e. homeomorphic to the interior of a compact manifold with boundary. We also construct domains of discontinuity (not necessarily with a compact quotient) in a much more general setting.
Crowley and Nordstr{o}m introduced an invariant of $G_2$-structures on the tangent bundle of a closed 7-manifold, taking values in the integers modulo 48. Using the spectral description of this invariant due to Crowley, Goette and Nordstr{o}m, we compute it for many of the closed torsion-free $G_2$-manifolds defined by Joyces generalized Kummer construction.