On the Existence of Finite Type Link Homotopy Invariants

We show that for links with at most 5 components, the only finite type homotopy invariants are products of the linking numbers. In contrast, we show that for links with at least 9 components, there must exist finite type homotopy invariants which are not products of the linking numbers. This corrects previous errors of the first author.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

From rubber bands to rational maps: A research report

This research report outlines work, partially joint with Jeremy Kahn and Kevin Pilgrim, which gives parallel theories of elastic graphs and conformal surfaces with boundary. One one hand, this lets us tell when one rubber band network is looser than another, and on the other hand tell when one conformal surface embeds in another. We apply this to give a new characterization of hyperbolic critically finite rational maps among branched self-coverings of the sphere, by a positive criterion: a branched covering is equivalent to a hyperbolic rational map if and only if there is an elastic graph with a particular "self-embedding" property. This complements the earlier negative criterion of W. Thurston.Comment: 52 pages, numerous figures. v2: New example