A cyclic meander is an embedded oriented loop in the plane intersecting a fixed infinite line, or circle, transversely in a linearly ordered set of $2n$ points. By keeping track of the order in which the loop visits these points, the cyclic meander induces a cyclic permutation on these marked points. Correspondingly, given a permutation on $n$ letters, one can ask whether or not a cyclic meander induces the permutation in this manner, and if not, what is the most efficient way of doing so if we allow more points of intersection? This process gives a way of associating to a permutation on $n$ letters a measurement of complexity of the permutation in question. The principal result of this work shows that the maximum of this quantity, the \emph{meander number}, over all cyclic permutations on $n$ letters, is bounded above and below quadratically in $n$. This result resolves a conjecture of Schwartz~\cite{richtpss} in relation to his work on the topological salesman problem. We conclude this work by constructing families of cyclic permutations on $n$ letters whose meander numbers realize a continuum of growth rates between linear and quadratic.

Freedman and Krushkal introduced a triple torsion linking form for rational homology $3$-spheres and used it to obstruct locally flat embeddings in $S^4$. For every odd prime $p$, we identify their triple torsion form, computed with parameter $t=p$ on rational homology $3$-spheres whose first homology has exponent $p$, with the mod-$p$ triple cup product under torsion-linking duality. For algebraically split $\pm p$-framed surgery links, this gives a signed formula in terms of Milnor's integral length-three invariants $\bar\mu_{ijk}$, with the framing-sign factor dictated by torsion-linking duality. We then use Borromean band-sums to realize arbitrary mod-$p$ triple cup tensors on rational homology $3$-spheres with $H_1\cong(\mathbb Z/p)^6$ and fixed hyperbolic ordinary torsion linking form. Finally, using the classical spinor/Klein model for the split six-dimensional quadratic space, we classify the tensors with no dual null Hantzsche pair. This produces, for every odd prime $p$, a rational homology $3$-sphere with hyperbolic ordinary torsion linking form but with no locally flat embedding in $S^4$, and indeed no locally flat embedding in any integer homology $4$-sphere.

To a full $m\times n$ Mealy automaton $A$ we associate a bijection $\theta_A$, a one-vertex rank-two graph $F_{\theta_A}$, and a one-vertex $VH$-square complex $Y_A$ tiled by $mn$ Wang tiles. We prove that $Y_A$ contains an anti-torus if and only if $A$ is bi-reversible and $F_{\theta_A}$ is aperiodic. The two hypotheses are independent and play disjoint roles: bi-reversibility is exactly what makes $Y_A$ a complete square complex, so that its universal cover splits as a product of two trees and anti-tori can be discussed at all; and, within that setting, an anti-torus is precisely a period-free configuration in the two-sided path space of $F_{\theta_A}$, whose existence is the aperiodicity condition. Working at the level of configurations removes any appeal to the geometry of products of trees from the main equivalence; the geometric (loop-spanned) form of Wise is shown to be strictly stronger, the lamplighter being aperiodic with no loop-spanned anti-torus.

Let $E$ be a flat Lorentzian space of signature $(2,1)$. A Margulis space-time is a noncompact complete flat Lorentzian $3$-manifold $E/\Gamma$, where the holonomy group $\Gamma$ is a free group of rank $g\geq 2$ acting freely and properly discontinuously by isometries. We consider the case where $\Gamma$ contains a parabolic element. We show that sufficiently small deformations of $\Gamma$ still act properly discontinuously on $E$ provided their linear parts are Fuchsian; moreover, the number of conjugacy classes of parabolic elements may increase or decrease under deformation. Our proof combines our previous compactification of $E/\Gamma$ relative to parabolic holonomy elements with a partial generalization of the work of Carrière. However, this result depends only on the parts on parabolic actions of our earlier work. We believe that the shortness of the proof of this openness result is of independent interest.

We study the Alexander polynomials of the 4-strand Turk's head knots $Th(4,2n+1)$, defined as the closures of the braid $(\sigma_1\sigma_2^{-1}\sigma_3)^{2n+1}$. Using the reduced Burau representation, we derive an annihilating recurrence of order at most 8 and a rational generating function for the resulting polynomial sequence. By executing a multivariable resultant elimination over the reciprocal constraint, we obtain an exact factorization of the normalized Alexander polynomial in terms of Chebyshev polynomials. This factorization produces a binomial convolution formula for an associated coefficient sequence and a representation by a terminating ${}_4F_3$ hypergeometric series. We evaluate the continuous approximation of this representation using the saddle-point method, demonstrating negative curvature in the asymptotic main term. Finally, we describe analytic obstructions to extracting global discrete error bounds via this method, leaving the formal proof of Fox's Trapezoidal Conjecture for this family open.

A recent conjecture by Joel Fine posits a relationship between the coefficients of the HOMFLY polynomial of a knot $K$ in the 3-sphere $S^3$, and the signed count of minimal surfaces in hyperbolic 4-space $\mathrm{H}^4$ meeting the sphere at infinity at $K$, with prescribed genus and self-intersection number. In this paper, we develop a novel machine learning framework based on Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to solve the minimal surface equation in hyperbolic space. We utilise this framework to test Fine's Conjecture by constructing near-minimal surfaces bounding various families of knots in $S^3$. Furthermore, we develop an algorithmic method to find self-intersections and compute their sign. For every knot analysed, the computationally discovered minimal surfaces and their self-intersection numbers perfectly align with the predictions of Fine's Conjecture, providing empirical evidence for it.

Cosymplectic and normal almost contact structures are analogues of symplectic and complex structures that can be defined on 3-manifolds. Their existence imposes strong topological constraints. Generalized geometry offers a natural common generalization of these two structures: $B_3$-generalized complex structures. We prove that any closed orientable 3-manifold admits such a structure, which can be chosen to be stable, that is, generically cosymplectic up to generalized diffeomorphism.

We study two problems concerning the Stiefel manifolds $V_{n,2}$ and their products with spheres. First, we address a rigidity problem: we determine, for most values of~$n$, all self-maps of $V_{n,2}$ that are homotopic to an almost diffeomorphism. Second, we classify smooth closed manifolds tangentially homotopy equivalent to $V_{n,2} \times S^k$ up to almost diffeomorphism, for $k = 3, 5$ or $7 \leq k, k \neq 2^i - 2 \ \text{and} \ Dim(V_{n,2} \times S^k) \neq 2^i - 2$. Our method is to find explicit inverses in the structure set via normal invariants of specific tangential homotopy equivalences. In favourable cases -- notably $V_{12,2} \times S^3$, $V_{16,2} \times S^3$, $V_{10,2} \times S^5$ -- the classification is complete: every such manifold is almost diffeomorphic to $V_{n,2} \mathbin{\#} \Sigma \times S^k$ for some exotic sphere $\Sigma$. In the general case, we identify inverses for a large subgroup of $\operatorname{Im}(\eta)$ and provide a reasonable direction for the remainder.

We study a quantum version of the $n$-dimer model from statistical mechanics, based on the formalism from quantum topology developed by Reshetikhin and Turaev (the latter which, in particular, can be used to construct the Jones polynomial of a knot in $\mathbb{R}^3$). We apply this machinery to construct an isotopy invariant polynomial for knotted bipartite ribbon graphs in $\mathbb{R}^3$, giving, in the planar setting, a quantum $n$-dimer partition function. As one application, we compute the expected number of loops in the (classical) double dimer model for planar bipartite graphs.

We investigate the $h$-principle problem for fat distributions. These are maximally non-integrable distributions with natural symplectisations and contactisations, that generalize contact distributions to higher corank. We focus on the corank-$2$ case, where we study a natural class of submanifolds, which we call prelegendrians. Their key feature is that they admit a canonical Legendrian lift to the contactisation. Our main results state that the $h$-principle fails for these submanifolds in all dimensions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of rigidity in the study of maximally non-integrable distributions, outside of contact topology. First, we find an infinite family of $(2n+1)$-tori in the standard fat $(\mathbb{C}^{2n+1},\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{std}})$, with the following two properties: (1) They all represent the same formal prelegendrian class, (2) but they are not prelegendrian isotopic because they are distinguished by pseudoholomorphic curve invariants of their Legendrian lift. Secondly, we define the notion of prelegendrian stabilization in $(\mathbb{C}^{2n+1},\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{std}})$. This allows us to take an arbitrary prelegendrian and produce another one, in the same formal class, whose Legendrian lift is loose. In order to prove these results we also develop the fundamentals of the theory of prelegendrians. This includes: (1) introducing the notion of front projection in $(\mathbb{C}^{2n+1},\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{std}})$, (2) proving that pseudoholomorphic curve invariants are robust under perturbations of the fat structure, allowing us to transport our results to non-standard fat structures, (3) introducing a zooming argument showing that any fat structure in dimension $6$ admits prelegendrians.