Related papers: Arc distance equals level number

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a simple closed curve on the boundary of a genus two handlebody to decompose the handlebody into (torus with one boundary component times [0,1]. We use this condition to decide whether a…

We show there exists a linear function w: N->N with the following property. Let K be a hyperbolic knot in a hyperbolic 3-manifold M admitting a non-longitudinal S^3 surgery. If K is put into thin position with respect to a strongly…

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…

Let M be a closed 3-manifold with a given Heegaard splitting. We show that after a single stabilization, some core of the stabilized splitting has arbitrarily high distance with respect to the splitting surface. This generalizes a result of…

For a knot $K$, Kakimizu introduced a simplicial complex whose vertices are all the isotopy classes of minimal genus spanning surfaces for $K$. The first purpose of this paper is to prove the 1-skeleton of this complex has diameter bounded…

We extend the notion of thin multiple Heegaard splittings of a link in a 3-manifold to take into consideration not only compressing disks but also cut-disks for the Heegaard surfaces. We prove that if H is a c-strongly compressible bridge…

This paper studies Heegaard splittings of surface bundles via the curve complex of the fibre. The translation distance of the monodromy is the smallest distance it moves any vertex of the curve complex. We prove that the translation…

Suppose M is a compact orientable irreducible 3-manifold with Heegaard splitting surfaces P and Q. Then either Q is isotopic to a possibly stabilized copy of P or the Hempel distance of the splitting P is no greater than twice the genus of…

In a 3-manifold M, let K be a knot and R be an annulus which meets K transversely. We define the notion of the pair (R,K) being caught by a surface Q in the exterior of the link given by K and the boundary curves of R. For a caught pair…

The transient number of a knot K, denoted tr(K), is the minimal number of simple arcs that have to be attached to K, in order that K can be homotoped to a trivial knot in a regular neighborhood of the union of K and the arcs. We give a…

Let $h(K)$, $g_H(K)$, $g_1(K)$, $t(K)$ be the $h$-genus, Heegaard genus, bridge-1 genus, tunnel number of a knot $K$ in the $3$-sphere $S^3$, respectively. It is known that $g_H(K)-1=t(K)\leq g_1(K)\leq h(K)\leq g_H(K)$. A natural question…

A theorem of Jorgensen and Thurston implies that the volume of a hyperbolic 3-manifold is bounded below by a linear function of its Heegaard genus. Heegaard surfaces and bridge surfaces often exhibit similar topological behavior; thus it is…

In this paper we study the relationships between links in plat position, the dynamics of the braid group, and Heegaard splittings of double branched covers of $S^3$ over a link. These relationships offer new ways to view links in plat…

In this paper, we define the rectangle condition on the bridge sphere for a $n$-bridge decomposition of a knot whose definition is analogous to the definition of the rectangle condition for Heegaard splittings of $3$-manifolds. We show that…

We provide an algorithm to determine the Heegaard genus of simple 3-manifolds with non-empty boundary. More generally, we supply an algorithm to determine (up to ambient isotopy) all the Heegaard splittings of any given genus for the…

We show that the number of stabilizations needed to interchange the handlebodies of a Heegaard splitting of a closed 3-manifold by an isotopy is bounded below by the smaller of twice its genus or half its Hempel distance. This is a…

This paper generalizes the definition of a Heegaard splitting to unify Scharlemann and Thomspon's concept of thin position for 3-manifolds, Gabai's thin position for knots, and Rubinstein's almost normal surface theory. This gives…

We present a new theory which describes the collection of all tunnels of tunnel number 1 knots in the 3-sphere (up to orientation-preserving equivalence in the sense of Heegaard splittings) using the disk complex of the genus-2 handlebody…

We show that if the Hempel distance of a Heegaard splitting is larger than three then the mapping class group of the Heegaard splitting is isomorphic to a subgroup of the mapping class group of the ambient 3-manifold. This implies that…

Given $(V_1,V_2)$ a Heegaard splitting of the complement of a composite knot $K=K_1# K_2$ in $S^3$, where $K_i, i=1,2$ are prime knots, we have a unique, up to isotopy, decomposing annulus $A$. When the intersection of $A$ and $V_1$ is a…