Distinct quantum vacua of topologically ordered states can be tunneled into each other via extended operators. The possible applications include condensed matter and quantum cosmology. We present a straightforward approach to calculate the partition function on various manifolds and ground state degeneracy (GSD), mainly based on continuum/cochain topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), in any dimension. This information can be related to the counting of extended operators of bosonic/fermionic TQFTs. On the lattice scale, anyonic particles/strings live at the ends of line/surface operators. Certain systems in different dimensions are related to each other through dimensional reduction schemes, analogous to (de)categorification. Examples include spin TQFTs derived from gauging the interacting fermionic symmetry-protected topological states (with fermion parity \mathbb{Z}_2^f) of symmetry groups \mathbb{Z}_2^f and \mathbb{Z}_2^f in

The chapter discusses the equivariant loop theorem for three-dimensional manifolds that is needed in settling the Smith conjecture and reviews the existence theorems for minimal surfaces. The equivariant version of the loop theorem says that there are a finite number of properly embedded disks in <i>M</i> that satisfy the required properties. The loop theorem respects the action of the group <i>G</i> in a suitable manner. The chapter puts a metric on <i>M</i> so that the group <i>G</i> acts isometrically and so that <i>M</i> is convex with respect to the outward normal. Then with respect to this metric, the existence of an immersed disk <i>D</i>₁ is demonstrated, in <i>M</i> whose boundary <i> D₁</i>, represents a nontrivial element in ₁(<i>S</i>) and whose area is minimal among all such disks. The chapter describes Morrey's solution for the plateau problem in a general Riemannian manifold. The existence theorem for manifolds with boundary

Here we propose a novel method to compute Teichmller shape space based shape index to study brain morphometry. Such a shape index is intrinsic, and invariant under conformal transformations, rigid motions and scaling. We conformally map a genus-zero open boundary surface to the Poincar disk with the Yamabe flow method. The shape indices that we compute are the lengths of a special set of geodesics under hyperbolic metric. Tests on longitudinal brain imaging data were used to demonstrate the stability of the derived feature vectors. In leave-one-out validation tests, we achieved 100% accurate classification (versus only 68% accuracy for volume measures) in distinguishing 11 HIV/AIDS individuals from 8 healthy control subjects, based on Teichmller coordinates for lateral ventricular surfaces extracted from their 3D MRI scans.

WE CONSIDER Haken manifolds M. That is three manifolds which are compact, irreducible, orientable, and sufficiently 1arge. S 8M may or may not be empty. This class of 3-manifolds shares many properties with closed surfaces (# S2 or RP2). On an algebraic level, both are examples of K (T, 1)s. More geometrically the hierarchy structure of a Haken manifold [9] is analogous to a sequence of cuts turning a surface into a disk. With the aid of minimal surfaces we are able to find a sufficiently natural hierarchy to establish a new similarity between Haken manifolds and surfaces. Our main theorem is:

This chapter discusses some recent results by Richard Schoen and Shing-Tung Yau on the structure of manifolds with positive scalar curvature. The chapter presents theorems which are felt to provide a more complete picture of manifolds with positive scalar curvature: (1) let M be a compact four-dimensional manifold with positive scalar curvature. Then there exists no continuous map with non-zero degree onto a compact K(,1). (2) Let M be n-dimensional complete manifold with non-negative scalar curvature. Then any conformed immersion of M into Sⁿ is one to one. In particular, any complete conformally flat manifold with non-negative scalar curvature is the quotient of a domain in Sⁿ by a discrete subgroup of the conformal group. (3.) Let M be a compact manifold whose fundamental group is not of exponential growth. Then unless M is covered by Sⁿ, Sⁿ¹ x S¹ or the torus, M admits no