For a closed orientable irreducible $3$-manifold $M$ that admits a co-orientable taut foliation with one-sided branching, we show that $π_1(M)$ is left orderable.
This paper explores the conjecture that the following are equivalent for rational homology 3-spheres: having left-orderable fundamental group, having non-minimal Heegaard Floer homology, and admitting a co-orientable taut foliation. In particular, it adds further evidence in favor of this conjecture by studying these three properties for more than 300,000 hyperbolic rational homology 3-spheres. New or much improved methods for studying each of these properties form the bulk of the paper, including a new combinatorial criterion, called a foliar orientation, for showing that a 3-manifold has a t…
This article proves that the parity of the number of Klein-bottle leaves in a smooth cooriented taut foliation is invariant under smooth deformations within taut foliations, provided that every Klein-bottle leaf involved in the counting has non-trivial linear holonomy.
We describe notions of tautness that arise in the study of $C^0$ foliations, $C^{1,0}$ or smoother foliations, and in geometry. We give examples to show that these notions are different, and discuss how these differences impact some classical foliation results. We construct examples of smoothly taut $C^{\infty,0}$ foliations that can be $C^0$ approximated by both weakly symplectically fillable, universally tight contact structures and by overtwisted contact structures.
Let $M$ be a fibered 3-manifold with multiple boundary components. We show that the fiber structure of $M$ transforms to closely related transversely oriented taut foliations realizing all rational multislopes in some open neighborhood of the multislope of the fiber. Each such foliation extends to a taut foliation in the closed 3-manifold obtained by Dehn filling along its boundary multislope. The existence of these foliations implies that certain contact structures are weakly symplectically fillable.
We show that a graph manifold which is a Z-homology 3-sphere not homeomorphic to either the 3-sphere or the Poincaré homology 3-sphere admits a horizontal foliation. This combines with known results to show that the conditions of not being an L-space, of having a left-orderable fundamental group, and of admitting a co-oriented taut foliation, are equivalent for graph manifold Z-homology 3-spheres.
We show that for any nontrivial knot in $S^3$, there is an open interval containing zero such that a Dehn surgery on any slope in this interval yields a 3-manifold with taut foliations. This generalizes a theorem of Gabai on zero frame surgery.
We construct taut foliations in every closed 3-manifold obtained by $r$-framed Dehn surgery along a positive 3-braid knot $K$ in $S^3$, where $r < 2g(K)-1$ and $g(K)$ denotes the Seifert genus of $K$. This confirms a prediction of the L-space Conjecture. For instance, we produce taut foliations in every non-L-space obtained by surgery along the pretzel knot $P(-2,3,7)$, and indeed along every pretzel knot $P(-2,3,q)$, for $q$ a positive odd integer. This is the first construction of taut foliations for every non-L-space obtained by surgery along an infinite family of hyperbolic L-space knots. …
Sutured instanton Floer homology was introduced by Kronheimer and Mrowka. In this paper, we prove that for a taut balanced sutured manifold with vanishing second homology, the dimension of the sutured instanton Floer homology provides a bound on the minimal depth of all possible taut foliations on that balanced sutured manifold. The same argument can be adapted to the monopole and even the Heegaard Floer settings, which gives a partial answer to one of Juhasz's conjectures. Using the nature of instanton Floer homology, on knot complements, we can construct a taut foliation with bounded depth, …
Let $M$ be a closed orientable irreducible $3$-manifold such that $π_1(M)$ is left orderable. (a) Let $M_0 = M - Int(B^{3})$, where $B^{3}$ is a compact $3$-ball in $M$. We have a process to produce a co-orientable Reebless foliation $\mathcal{F}$ in $M_0$ such that: (1) $\mathcal{F}$ has a transverse $(π_1(M),\mathbb{R})$ structure, (2) there exists a simple closed curve in $M$ that is co-orientably transverse to $\mathcal{F}$ and intersects every leaf of $\mathcal{F}$. More specifically, given a pair $(<,Γ)$ composed of a left-invariant order "$<$" of $π_1(M)$ and a fundamental domain $Γ$ of…
If $Y$ is a closed orientable graph manifold, we show that $Y$ admits a coorientable taut foliation if and only if $Y$ is not an L-space. Combined with previous work of Boyer and Clay, this implies that $Y$ is an L-space if and only if $π_1(Y)$ is not left-orderable.
In this article, we study the Euler class of taut foliations on the Dehn fillings of a $\mathbb{Q}$-homology solid torus. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the Euler class of a foliation transverse to the core of the filling solid torus to vanish. We apply this condition to taut foliations on Dehn fillings of hyperbolic fibered manifolds and obtain many new left-orderable Dehn filling slopes on these manifolds. For instance, we show that when $X$ is the exterior of a pretzel knot $P(-2,3,2r+1)$, $r\geq 3$, $π_1(X(α_n))$ is left-orderable for a sequence of positive slopes $α_n$ w…
Let $F$ be a leafwise hyperbolic taut foliation of a closed 3-manifold $M$ and let $L$ be the leaf space of the pullback of $F$ to the universal cover of $M$. We show that if $F$ has branching, then the natural action of $π_1(M)$ on $L$ is faithful. We also show that if $F$ has a finite branch locus $B$ whose stabilizer acts on $B$ nontrivially, then the stabilizer is an infinite cyclic group generated by an indivisible element of $π_1(M)$.
We study positive braid knots (the knots in the three-sphere realized as positive braid closures) through the lens of the L-space conjecture. This conjecture predicts that if $K$ is a non-trivial positive braid knot, then for all $r < 2g(K)-1$, the 3-manifold obtained via $r$-framed Dehn surgery along $K$ admits a taut foliation. Our main result provides some positive evidence towards this conjecture: we construct taut foliations in such manifolds whenever $r<g(K)+1$. As an application, we produce a novel braid positivity obstruction for cable knots by proving that the $(n,\pm 1)$-cable of a k…
We study the left-orderability of the fundamental groups of cyclic branched covers of links which admit co-oriented taut foliations. In particular we do this for cyclic branched covers of fibred knots in integer homology $3$-spheres and cyclic branched covers of closed braids. The latter allows us to complete the proof of the L-space conjecture for closed, connected, orientable, irreducible $3$-manifolds containing a genus $1$ fibred knot. We also prove that the universal abelian cover of a manifold obtained by generic Dehn surgery on a hyperbolic fibred knot in an integer homology $3$-sphere …
A 3-manifold is foliar if it supports a codimension-one co-oriented taut foliation. Suppose $M$ is an oriented 3-manifold with connected boundary a torus, and suppose $M$ contains a properly embedded, compact, oriented, surface $R$ with a single boundary component that is Thurston norm minimizing in $H_2(M, \partial M)$. We define a readily recognizable type of sutured manifold decomposition, which for notational reasons we call double-diamond taut, and show that if $R$ admits a double-diamond taut sutured manifold decomposition, then every boundary slope except one is strongly realized by a c…
Torus leaves play a crucial role in the theory of foliations. For example non-taut foliations admit a torus leaf (see the article of Goodman). In this paper, we study all the foliations near a torus leaf, and try to understand why sometimes it is taut, or non-taut (and Reebless). We focus on some crucial examples to understand non-taut and Reebless foliations; and foliations admitting a non-separating torus leaf. It relies on the study of turbulization and spiraling, with generalizations.
Motivated by conjectures relating group orderability, Floer homology, and taut foliations, we discuss a systematic and broadly applicable technique for constructing left-orders on the fundamental groups of rational homology 3-spheres. Specifically, for a compact 3-manifold $M$ with torus boundary, we give several criteria which imply that whole intervals of Dehn fillings of $M$ have left-orderable fundamental groups. Our technique uses certain representations from $π_1(M)$ into $\widetilde{\mathrm{PSL}_2 \mathbb{R}}$, which we organize into an infinite graph in $H^1(\partial M; \mathbb{R})$ ca…
For an oriented irreducible 3-manifold M with non-empty toroidal boundary, we describe how sutured Floer homology ($SFH$) can be used to determine all fibered classes in $H^1(M)$. Furthermore, we show that the $SFH$ of a balanced sutured manifold $(M,γ)$ detects which classes in $H^1(M)$ admit a taut depth one foliation such that the only compact leaves are the components of $R(γ)$. The latter had been proved earlier by the first author under the extra assumption that $H_2(M)=0$. The main technical result is that we can obtain an extremal $\text{Spin}^c$-structure $\mathfrak{s}$ (i.e., one tha…
This paper concerns the problem of existence of taut foliations among 3-manifolds. Since the contribution of David Gabai, we know that closed 3-manifolds with non-trivial second homology group admit a taut foliations. The essential part of this paper focuses on Seifert fibered homology 3-spheres. The result is quite different if they are integral or rational but non-integral homology 3-spheres. Concerning integral homology 3-spheres, we prove that all but the 3-sphere and the Poincaré 3-sphere admit a taut foliation. Concerning non-integral homology 3-spheres, we prove there are infinitely man…
It has been recently conjectured by Boyer-Gordon-Watson that a closed, orientable, irreducible $3$-manifold $M$ is a Heegaard Floer $L$-space if and only if $π_1(M)$ is not left-orderable. In this article, we study this conjecture from the point of view of lattice cohomology, an invariant introduced by Némethi which is conjecturally isomorphic to the $HF^+$ version of Heegaard Floer homology. Using the invariant's combinatorial tractability as a stepping stone, we produce some interesting quite general families of negative-definite graph manifolds against which to test the Boyer-Gordon-Watson …
For closed 3-manifolds, Heegaard Floer homology is related to the Thurston norm through results due to Ozsváth and Szabó, Ni, and Hedden. For example, given a closed 3-manifold Y, there is a bijection between vertices of the HF^+(Y) polytope carrying the group Z and the faces of the Thurston norm unit ball that correspond to fibrations of Y over the unit circle. Moreover, the Thurston norm unit ball of Y is dual to the polytope of \underline{\hfhat}(Y). We prove a similar bijection and duality result for a class of 3-manifolds with boundary called sutured manifolds. A sutured manifold is essen…
A co-oriented foliation F of an oriented 3-manifold M is taut if and only if there is a map from M to the 2-sphere whose restriction to every leaf is a branched cover.
We extend the Eliashberg-Thurston theorem on approximations of taut oriented $C^2$-foliations of 3-manifolds by both positive and negative contact structures to a large class of taut oriented $C^{1,0}$-foliations, where by $C^{1,0}$ foliation, we mean a foliation with continuous tangent plane field. These $C^{1,0}$-foliations can therefore be approximated by weakly symplectically fillable, universally tight, contact structures. This allows applications of $C^2$-foliation theory to contact topology and Floer theory to be generalized and extended to constructions of $C^{1,0}$-foliations.
In his seminal 1976 paper Bill Thurston observed that a closed leaf S of a foliation has Euler characteristic equal, up to sign, to the Euler class of the foliation evaluated on [S], the homology class represented by S. The main result of this paper is a converse for taut foliations: if the Euler class of a taut foliation $\mathcal{F}$ evaluated on [S] equals up to sign the Euler characteristic of S and the underlying manifold is hyperbolic, then there exists another taut foliation $\mathcal{F'}$ such that $S$ is homologous to a union of leaves and such that the plane field of $\mathcal{F'}$ i…
A graph manifold rational homology $3$-sphere $W$ with a left-orderable fundamental group admits a co-oriented taut foliation, though it is unknown whether it admits a smooth co-oriented taut foliation. In this paper we extend the gluing theorem of arXiv:1401.7726 to graph manifold rational homology solid tori and use this to show that there are smooth foliations on the pieces of $W$ which come close to matching up on its JSJ tori. This is applied to prove that a graph manifold with left-orderable fundamental group is not an L-space.
Whether every hyperbolic 3-manifold admits a tight contact structure or not is an open question. Many hyperbolic 3-manifolds contain taut foliations and taut foliations can be perturbed to tight contact structures. The first examples of hyperbolic 3-manifolds without taut foliations were constructed by Roberts, Shareshian, and Stein, and infinitely many of them do not even admit essential laminations as shown by Fenley. In this paper, we construct tight contact structures on a family of 3-manifolds including these examples. These contact structures are described by contact surgery diagrams and…
Suppose that $\mathcal F$ is a transversely oriented, codimension one foliation of a connected, closed, oriented 3-manifold. Suppose also that $\mathcal F$ has continuous tangent plane field and is {\sl taut}; that is, closed smooth transversals to $\mathcal F$ pass through every point of $M$. We show that if $\mathcal F$ is not the product foliation $S^1\times S^2$, then $\mathcal F$ can be $C^0$ approximated by weakly symplectically fillable, universally tight, contact structures. This extends work of Eliashberg-Thurston on approximations of taut, transversely oriented $C^2$ foliations to th…
Using deformations of foliations to contact structures as well as rigidity properties of Anosov foliations we provide infinite families of examples which show that the space of taut foliations in a given homotopy class of plane fields is in general not path connected. Similar methods also show that the space of representations of the fundamental group of a hyperbolic surface to the group of smooth diffeomorphisms of the circle with fixed Euler class is in general not path connected. As an important step along the way we resolve the question of which universally tight contact structures on Seif…
We describe a construction which takes as an input a left order of the fundamental group of a manifold, and outputs a (singular) foliation of this manifold which is analogous to a taut foliation. We investigate this construction in detail in dimension $2$, and exhibit connections to various problems in dimension $3$.
We show that the properties of admitting a co-oriented taut foliation and having a left-orderable fundamental group are equivalent for rational homology $3$-sphere graph manifolds and relate them to the property of not being a Heegaard-Floer L-space. This is accomplished in several steps. First we show how to detect families of slopes on the boundary of a Seifert fibred manifold in four different fashions - using representations, using left-orders, using foliations, and using Heegaard-Floer homology. Then we show that each method of detection determines the same family of detected slopes. Next…