English

The Heegaard genus of bundles over S^1

Geometric Topology 2009-03-30 v2

Abstract

This paper explores connections between Heegaard genus, minimal surfaces, and pseudo-Anosov monodromies. Fixing a pseudo-Anosov map phi and an integer n, let M_n be the 3-manifold fibered over S^1 with monodromy phi^n. JH Rubinstein showed that for a large enough n every minimal surface of genus at most h in M_n is homotopic into a fiber; as a consequence Rubinstein concludes that every Heegaard surface of genus at most h for M_n is standard, that is, obtained by tubing together two fibers. We prove this result and also discuss related results of Lackenby and Souto.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0608517,
  title  = {The Heegaard genus of bundles over S^1},
  author = {Mark Brittenham and Yo'av Rieck},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0608517},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 3 December 2007