Related papers: Multisections of piecewise linear manifolds

We prove that 1) There exist infinitely many non-trivial codimension one "thick" knots in $\mathbb{R}^5$; 2) For each closed four-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ and for each sufficiently small positive $\epsilon$ the set of isometry…

We summarize and expand known connections between the study of Dehn surgery on links and the study of trisections of closed, smooth 4-manifolds. In addition, we describe how the potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R…

We introduce a version of Heegaard diagrams for $5$-dimensional cobordisms with $2$- and $3$-handles, $5$-dimensional $3$-handlebodies, and closed $5$-manifolds. We show that every such smooth $5$-manifold can be represented by a Heegaard…

We examine three key conjectures in 3-manifold theory: the virtually Haken conjecture, the positive virtual b_1 conjecture and the virtually fibred conjecture. We explore the interaction of these conjectures with the following seemingly…

Given a genus two Heegaard splitting for a non-prime 3-manifold, we define a special subcomplex of the disk complex for one of the handlebodies of the splitting, and then show that it is contractible. As applications, first we show that the…

We study the question of the existence of a decomposition of the diagonal for very general quartic and $(2,3)$-complete intersection $n$-folds. Using cycle-theoretic techniques of Lange, Pavic and Schreieder we reduce the question via a…

An expository survey article on Heegaard splittings

We show the existence of a $4$-manifold with boundary that admits two non-diffeomorphic minimal genus relative trisections of the same $(g,k;p,b)$-type. To prove this, we introduce a simple operation that produces a trisection diagram of a…

A celebrated result concerning triangulations of a given closed 3-manifold is that any two triangulations with the same number of vertices are connected by a sequence of so-called 2-3 and 3-2 moves. A similar result is known for ideal…

We prove that every smoothly embedded surface in a 4--manifold can be isotoped to be in bridge position with respect to a given trisection of the ambient 4--manifold; that is, after isotopy, the surface meets components of the trisection in…

A Hamilton decomposition of a graph is a partitioning of its edge set into disjoint spanning cycles. The existence of such decompositions is known for all hypercubes of even dimension $2n$. We give a decomposition for the case $n = 2^a3^b$…

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…

Concerns decompositions of smooth 4-manifolds as the union of two handlebodies, each with handles of index <=2 (``Heegard'' decompositions).Sample result: Two 2-complexes are (up to 2-deformation) dual spines of a Heegard decomposition of…

A random Heegaard splitting is a 3-manifold obtained by using a random walk of length n on the mapping class group as the gluing map between two handlebodies. We show that the joint distribution of random walks of length n and their…

In this paper, we consider decompositions of 3-manifolds with three handlebodies. We classify such decompositions of the 3-sphere and lens spaces with small genera. These decompositions admit operations called stabilizations. We also…

In this paper we develop a theory for constructing an invariant of closed oriented 3-manifolds, given a certain type of Hopf algebra. Examples are given by a quantised enveloping algebra of a semisimple Lie algebra, or by a semisimple…

In all dimensions $n \ge 4$ not of the form $4m+3$, we show that there exists a closed hyperbolic $n$-manifold which is not the boundary of a compact $(n+1)$-manifold. The proof relies on the relationship between the cobordism class and the…

We use Heegaard splittings to give some examples of virtually Haken 3-manifolds.

The topology of Stein surfaces and contact 3-manifolds is studied by means of handle decompositions. A simple characterization of homeomorphism types of Stein surfaces is obtained --- they correspond to open handlebodies with all handles of…

In these notes, we describe several geometric interpretations of $H^2(X)$ when $X$ is a trisected 4-manifold. The main insight is that, by analogy with Hodge theory and sheaf cohomology in algebraic geometry, classes in $H^2(X)$ can be…