Related papers: 3-manifolds as viewed from the curve complex
In this paper, we shall prove that any Heegaard splitting of a $\partial$-reducible 3-manifold $M$, say $M=W\cup V$, can be obtained by doing connected sums, boundary connected sums and self-boundary connected sums from Heegaard splittings…
We construct simple curves from immersed curves in the setting of handlebodies and Heegaard splittings. We define a measure of complexity we call girth for closed curves in a handlebody. We extend this complexity to Heegaard splittings and…
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…
In this survey we discuss how geometric methods can be used to study topological properties of 3-manifolds such as their Heegaard genus or the rank of their fundamental group. On the other hand, we also discuss briefly some results relating…
A prism is the product space $\Delta \times I$ where $\Delta$ is a 2-simplex and $I$ is a closed interval. As an analogue of simplicial complexes, we introduce prism complexes and show that every compact $3$-manifold has a prism complex…
A three-manifold equipped with a Heegaard diagram can be used to set up a Floer homology theory whose differential counts pseudo-holomorphic disks in the $g$-fold symmetric product of the Heegaard surface. This leads to a topological…
The long standing classification problem in the theory of Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds is to exhibit for each closed 3-manifold a complete list, without duplication, of all its irreducible Heegaard surfaces, up to isotopy. We solve…
A simplified trisection is a trisection map on a 4-manifold such that, in its critical value set, there is no double point and cusps only appear in triples on innermost fold circles. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a…
We define "fat" train tracks and use them to give a combinatorial criterion for the Hempel distance of Heegaard splittings for closed orientable 3-manifolds. We apply this criterion to 3-manifolds obtained from surgery on knots in the three…
Let M_1 and M_2 be compact, orientable 3-manifolds, and M the manifold obtained by gluing some component F of \bdy M_1 to some component of \bdy M_2 by a homeomorphism \phi. We show that when \phi is "sufficiently complicated" then (1) the…
A Heegaard splitting of an open 3-manifold is the partition of the manifold into two non-compact handlebodies which intersect on their common boundary. This paper proves several non-compact analogues of theorems about compact Heegaard…
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,…
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…
Generalizing Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds and trisections of 4-manifolds, we consider multisections of higher-dimensional smooth (or PL) closed orientable manifolds, namely decompositions into 1-handlebodies whose subcollections…
A family of one-vertex triangulations of 3-manifolds, layered-triangulations, is defined. Layered-triangulations are first described for handlebodies and then extended to all 3-manifolds via Heegaard splittings. A complete and detailed…
These notes summarize and expand on a mini-course given at CIRM in February 2018 as part of Winter Braids VIII. We somewhat obsessively develop the slogan `Trisections are to 4-manifolds as Heegaard splittings are to 3-manifolds', focusing…
Bordered Floer homology assigns invariants to 3-manifolds with boundary, such that the Heegaard Floer homology of a closed 3-manifold, split into two pieces, can be recovered as a tensor product of the bordered invariants of the pieces. We…
A general method for the construction of smooth flat connections on 3-manifolds is introduced. The procedure is strictly connected with the deduction of the fundamental group of a manifold M by means of a Heegaard splitting presentation of…
We define a trisection of a closed, orientable three dimensional manifold into three handlebodies, and a notion of stabilization for these trisections. Several examples of trisections are described in detail. We define the trisection genus…
We construct examples of closed non-Haken hyperbolic 3-manifolds with a Heegaard splitting of arbitrarily large distance.