Short canonical decompositions of non-orientable surfaces

Abstract: Suppose that $S$ is a surface and $G \subset S$ is an embedded graph. In many applications, during algorithm design, and even when representing the embedding, there is a basic task: to cut $S$ into a single disk. When $S$ is orientable, it has long been known how to compute a canonical cutting system that is also "short": each arc of the system runs along each edge of $G$ at most a constant number of times.

In this talk we survey what is known about such cutting problems. We then explain how to obtain a short canonical system when $S$ is non-orientable.

This is joint work with Niloufar Fuladi and Alfredo Hubard.

algebraic topologydifferential geometrydynamical systemsgroup theorygeometric topologysymplectic geometry

Audience: researchers in the topic

( slides )

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Geometry and topology online

Series comments: You can also find up-to-date information on the seminar homepage - warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/research/events/seminars/areas/geomtop/

The talks start five minutes after the hour. Talks are typically 55 minutes long, including time for questions.

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