English

$\mathbb{Z}_2$-Thurston norm in Sol manifolds and embeddability of non-orientable surfaces

Geometric Topology 2026-03-25 v1

Abstract

For every Sol manifold MM, we determine the Z2\mathbb{Z}_2-Thurston norm of every element in H2(M;Z2)H_2(M;\mathbb{Z}_2). Each Sol manifold is either a torus bundle over the circle or a torus semi-bundle, thus corresponds to a torus map. We discuss the action of this torus map on a curve complex for the torus, whose edges connect curve classes of intersection number 2. For torus bundles over the circle, the Z2\mathbb{Z}_2-Thurston norm of any Z2\mathbb{Z}_2-homology class equals either zero or the minimum translation distance under the action; and for torus semi-bundles, it equals either zero or the translation distance of a specific curve class. Moreover, we construct incompressible surfaces to realize all the Z2\mathbb{Z}_2-homology classes. As a consequence, for any torus bundle over the circle or torus semi-bundle, we determine which non-orientable closed surfaces can be embedded in it.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.22894,
  title  = {$\mathbb{Z}_2$-Thurston norm in Sol manifolds and embeddability of non-orientable surfaces},
  author = {Xiaoming Du and Weibiao Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.22894},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 8 figures. Comments are welcome!