Foliations and the Geometry of 3-Manifolds

Download or read book Foliations and the Geometry of 3-Manifolds written by Danny Calegari and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-05-17 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique reference, aimed at research topologists, gives an exposition of the 'pseudo-Anosov' theory of foliations of 3-manifolds. This theory generalizes Thurston's theory of surface automorphisms and reveals an intimate connection between dynamics, geometry and topology in 3 dimensions. Significant themes returned to throughout the text include the importance of geometry, especially the hyperbolic geometry of surfaces, the importance of monotonicity, especially in1-dimensional and co-dimensional dynamics, and combinatorial approximation, using finite combinatorical objects such as train-tracks, branched surfaces and hierarchies to carry more complicated continuous objects.