Computers, Rigidity, and

Moduli

The Large-Scale Fractal Geometry of Riemannian

Moduli Space

Shmuel Weinberger

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

 Contents

Preface ix

Introduction and Overview 1

1.1 Reflections on Light 1
1.2 Variational Problems 3
1.3 The Best Is Often Beautiful 5
1.4 Moduli Space (Phase Space) 8
1.5 Calculus and Beyond 9
1.6 Some Fine Print 15
1.7 The Limits of Computation (and of Proof) 17
1.8 And Beyond 21
1.9 The Method of Eastern Philosophy 25
1.10 Fractals and Geometricization 28
Notes 32

Chapter 1. Group Theory 37

1.1 Presentations of Groups 37
1.2 Problems about Groups 42
Appendix: Some Refinements and Extensions 44
1.3 Dehn Functions 47
1.4 Group Homology 51
1.5 Arithmetic Groups 55
1.6 Realization of Sequences of Groups
as Group Homology 60
Notes 63

Chapter 2. Designer Homology Spheres 69

2.1 Fundamental Groups 69
2.2 Algorithmic Impossibility Results 73
2.3 Nabutovsky's Thesis 76
2.4 The Classification of Homology Spheres 77
Appendix 1: Surgery, Homology Surgery, and All That 80
Appendix 2: Isotopy of Hypersurfaces 83
Appendix 3: The Novikov Conjecture 85
VIII CONTENTS

2.5 Simplicial Norm 86

2.6 Homology Spheres with Nonzero Simplical Norm 88
Notes 90

Chapter 3. The Roles of Entropy 97

3.1 The Problem of Closed Geodesies 97
3.2 Entropy of Free Loopspaces and Closed
Contractible Geodesies 101
Appendix: Constructing Aspherical Manifolds
by Reflection Groups 105
3.3 Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity 106
3.4 Complexity and Closed Geodesies 109
Notes 111

Chapter 4. The Large-Scale Fractal Geometry of Riemannian

Moduli Space 119
4.1 Statement of Results 119
4.2 Neoclassical Comparison Geometry 125
4.3 Existence of Extremal Metrics 128
4.4 Depth versus Density 131
4.5 BDiff 133
Appendix 1: The Isomorphism Conjecture
and Secondary Invariants 139
Appendix 2: JSJ Decompositions 145
4.6 The Contagion of Symmetry 146
4.7 Filling Functions for Tl(M) 149
4.8 Further Directions 154
Notes 158

Index 171