Related papers: Heegaard splittings and 1-relator groups

We present a short proof of the following Pontryagin theorem, whose original proof was complicated and has never been published in details: {\bf Theorem.} Let $M$ be a connected oriented closed smooth 3-manifold. Let $L_1(M)$ be the set of…

Small covers arising from 3-dimensional simple polytopes are an interesting class of 3-manifolds. The fundamental group is a rigid invariant for wide classes of 3-manifolds, particularly for orientable Haken manifolds, which include…

Haken showed that the Heegaard splittings of reducible 3-manifolds are reducible, that is, a reducing 2-sphere can be found which intersects the Heegaard surface in a single simple closed curve. When the genus of the "interesting" surface…

We extend the techniques in a previous paper to calculate the Heegaard Floer homology groups for fibered 3-manifolds M whose monodromy is a power of a Dehn twist about a genus-1 separating circle on a surface of genus g > 1. We only…

For a Heegaard surface F in a closed orientable 3-manifold M, H(M,F) = Diff(M)/Diff(M,F) is the space of Heegaard surfaces equivalent to the Heegaard splitting (M,F). Its path components are the isotopy classes of Heegaard splittings…

Let $M$ be a surface sum of 3-manifolds $M_1$ and $M_2$ along a bounded connected surface $F$ and $\partial_i$ be the component of $\partial M_i$ containing $F$. If $M_i$ has a high distance Heegaard splitting, then any minimal Heegaard…

A gap in a paper of Rubinstein-Scharlemann is explored: new examples are found of closed orientable 3-manifolds with possibly multiple genus 2 Heegaard splittings. Properties common to all the examples in the original paper are not…

The Heegaard genus g of an irreducible closed orientable 3-manifold puts a limit on the number and complexity of the pieces that arise in the Jaco-Shalen-Johannson decomposition of the manifold by its canonical tori. For example, if p of…

A correspondence, by way of Heegaard splittings, between closed oriented 3-manifolds and pairs of surjections from a surface group to a free group has been studied by Stallings, Jaco, and Hempel. This correspondence, by way of trisections,…

The manifold which admits a genus-$2$ reducible Heegaard splitting is one of the $3$-sphere, $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{S}^1$, lens spaces and their connected sums. For each of those manifolds except most lens spaces, the mapping class…

We give an algorithmic proof of the theorem that a closed orientable irreducible and atoroidal 3-manifold has only finitely many Heegaard splittings in each genus, up to isotopy. The proof gives an algorithm to determine the Heegaard genus…

This article is the author's contribution to the volume "Problems on mapping class groups and related topics" which will be published in December 2006, with Benson Farb as Editor. Various individuals were invited by Farb to submit open…

How different is the universal cover of a given finite 2-complex from a 3-manifold (from the proper homotopy viewpoint)? Regarding this question, we recall that a finitely presented group $G$ is said to be properly 3-realizable if there…

This paper studies the set of finite groups appearing as $\pi_1(M)/\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$, where $M$ is a closed, orientable 3-manifold and $\pi_1(M)^{(n)}$ denotes the $n$-th term of the derived series of $\pi_1(M)$. Our main result is that if…

We construct families of pairs of Heegaard splittings that must be stabilized several times to become equivalent. The first such pair differs only by their orientation. These are genus n splittings of a closed 3-manifold that must be…

We study complexities of 3-manifolds defined from triangulations, Heegaard splittings, and surgery presentations. We show that these complexities are related by linear inequalities, by presenting explicit geometric constructions. We also…

Every surface bundle with genus $g$ fiber has a canonical Heegaard splitting of genus $2g+1$. We classify the mapping class groups of such Heegaard splittings in the case when the surface bundle has a sufficiently complicated monodromy map.

For each g greater than one there is a 3-manifold with two genus g Heegaard splittings that require g stabilizations to become equivalent. Previously known examples required at most one stabilization. Control of families of Heegaard…

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…

Let M be an orientable closed connected 3-manifold. We introduce the notion of amalgamated Heegaard genus of M with respect to a closed separating 2-manifold F, and use it to show that the following two statements are equivalent: (i) a…