This note is about a type of quantitative density of closed geodesics on closed hyperbolic surfaces. The main results are upper bounds on the length of the shortest closed geodesic that $varepsilon$-fills the surface.
Let $F_g$ be a closed orientable surface of genus $g$. A set $Omega = { gamma_1, dots, gamma_s}$ of pairwise non-homotopic simple closed curves on $F_g$ is called a emph{filling system} or simply a emph{filling} of $F_g$, if $F_gsetminus Omega$ is a
union of $b$ topological discs for some $bgeq 1$. A filling system is called emph{minimal}, if $b=1$. The emph{size} of a filling is defined as the number of its elements. We prove that the maximum size of a filling of $F_g$ with $b$ complementary discs is $2g+b-1$. Next, we show that for $ggeq 2, bgeq 1text{ with }(g,b) eq (2,1)$ (resp. $(g,b)=(2,1)$) and for each $2leq sleq 2g+b-1$ (resp. $3leq sleq 2g+b-1$), there exists a filling of $F_g$ of size $s$ with $b$ complementary discs. Furthermore, we study geometric intersection number of curves in a minimal filling. For $ggeq 2$, we show that for a minimal filling $Omega$ of size $s$, the emph{geometric intersection numbers} satisfy $max leftlbrace i(gamma_i, gamma_j)| i eq jrightrbraceleq 2g-s+1$, and for each such $s$ there exists a minimal filling $Omega=leftlbrace gamma_1, dots, gamma_s rightrbrace$ such that $maxleftlbrace i(gamma_i, gamma_j) | i eq jrightrbrace = 2g-s+1$.
Let $F_g$ denote a closed oriented surface of genus $g$. A set of simple closed curves is called a filling of $F_g$ if its complement is a disjoint union of discs. The mapping class group $text{Mod}(F_g)$ of genus $g$ acts on the set of fillings of $
F_g$. The union of the curves in a filling forms a graph on the surface which is a so-called decorated fat graph. It is a fact that two fillings of $F_g$ are in the same $text{Mod}(F_g)$-orbit if and only if the corresponding fat graphs are isomorphic. We prove that any filling of $F_2$ whose complement is a single disc (i.e., a so-called minimal filling) has either three or four closed curves and in each of these two cases, there is a unique such filling up to the action of $text{Mod}(F_2)$. We provide a constructive proof to show that the minimum number of discs in the complement of a filling pair of $F_2$ is two. Finally, given positive integers $g$ and $k$ with $(g, k) eq (2, 1)$, we construct a filling pair of $F_g$ such that the complement is a union of $k$ topological discs.
The loop graph of an infinite type surface is an infinite diameter hyperbolic graph first studied in detail by Juliette Bavard. An important open problem in the study of infinite type surfaces is to describe the boundary of the loop graph as a space
of geodesic laminations. We approach this problem by constructing the first examples of 2-filling rays on infinite type surfaces. Such rays accumulate onto geodesic laminations which are in some sense filling, but without strong enough properties to correspond to points in the boundary of the loop graph. We give multiple constructions using both a hands-on combinatorial approach and an approach using train tracks and automorphisms of flat surfaces. In addition, our approaches are sufficiently robust to describe all 2-filling rays with certain other basic properties as well as to produce uncountably many distinct mapping class group orbits.
Using the fractional discrete Laplace operator for triangle meshes, we introduce a fractional combinatorial Calabi flow for discrete conformal structures on surfaces, which unifies and generalizes Chow-Luos combinatorial Ricci flow for Thurstons circ
le packings, Luos combinatorial Yamabe flow for vertex scaling and the combinatorial Calabi flow for discrete conformal structures on surfaces. For Thurstons Euclidean and hyperbolic circle packings on triangulated surfaces, we prove the longtime existence and global convergence of the fractional combinatorial Calabi flow. For vertex scalings on polyhedral surfaces, we do surgery on the fractional combinatorial Calabi flow by edge flipping under the Delaunay condition to handle the potential singularities along the flow. Using the discrete conformal theory established by Gu et al., we prove the longtime existence and global convergence of the fractional combinatorial Calabi flow with surgery.
We prove the first polynomial bound on the number of monotonic homotopy moves required to tighten a collection of closed curves on any compact orientable surface, where the number of crossings in the curve is not allowed to increase at any time durin
g the process. The best known upper bound before was exponential, which can be obtained by combining the algorithm of de Graaf and Schrijver [J. Comb. Theory Ser. B, 1997] together with an exponential upper bound on the number of possible surface maps. To obtain the new upper bound we apply tools from hyperbolic geometry, as well as operations in graph drawing algorithms---the cluster and pipe expansions---to the study of curves on surfaces. As corollaries, we present two efficient algorithms for curves and graphs on surfaces. First, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm to convert any given multicurve on a surface into minimal position. Such an algorithm only existed for single closed curves, and it is known that previous techniques do not generalize to the multicurve case. Second, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm to reduce any $k$-terminal plane graph (and more generally, surface graph) using degree-1 reductions, series-parallel reductions, and $Delta Y$-transformations for arbitrary integer $k$. Previous algorithms only existed in the planar setting when $k le 4$, and all of them rely on extensive case-by-case analysis based on different values of $k$. Our algorithm makes use of the connection between electrical transformations and homotopy moves, and thus solves the problem in a unified fashion.