English

Alternate Heegaard genus bounds distance

Geometric Topology 2009-03-16 v4

Abstract

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 Q. More generally, if P and Q are bicompressible but weakly incompressible connected closed separating surfaces in M then either a) P and Q can be well-separated or b) P and Q are isotopic or c) the Hempel distance of P is no greater than twice the genus of Q.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0501140,
  title  = {Alternate Heegaard genus bounds distance},
  author = {Martin Scharlemann and Maggy Tomova},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0501140},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

This is the version published by Geometry & Topology on 4 May 2006 (V4: typesetting correction)

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:14:21.393Z