C. Gordon conjectured that a connected sum of two Heegaard splittings is stabilized if and only if one of the two factors is stabilized (Problem 3.91 in Kirby's problem list). In this paper, we shall prove this conjecture.
We construct infinitely many manifolds admitting both strongly irreducible and weakly reducible minimal genus Heegaard splittings. Both closed manifolds and manifolds with boundary tori are constructed.
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 of $n$ manifolds $M_{1},..., M_{n}$ where $M_{i}$ is either a solid torus or a $\partial$-irreducible manifold. Furthermore, $W\cup V$ is stabilized if and only if one of the factors is stabilized.
This paper studies the question of whether minimal genus Heegaard splittings of exterior spaces of knots which are connected sums are weakly reducible or not. Furthermore it is shown that the Heegaard splittings of the knots used by Morimoto to show that tunnel number can be sub-additive are all strongly irreducible. These are the first examples of strongly irreducible minimal genus Heegaard splittings of composite knots. We also give a characterization of when is a set of primitive annuli on a handlebody simultaneously primitive. This characterization is different from that given in [Go].
Let (V,W;F) be a weakly reducible, unstabilized, genus three Heegaard splitting in an orientable, irreducible 3-manifold M. In this article, we prove that either the disk complex D(F) is contractible or F is critical. Hence, the topological index of F is two if F is topologically minimal.
We give a necessary and sufficient condition for a simple closed curve on the boundary of a genus two handlebody to decompose the handlebody into (torus with one boundary component times [0,1]. We use this condition to decide whether a simple closed curve on a genus two Heegaard surface is a GOF-knot (genus one fibered knot) which induces the Heegaard splitting. By using this, we determine the number and the positions with respect to the Heegaard splittings of GOF-knots in the 3-manifolds with reducible genus two Heegaard splittings. This is another proof of results of Morimoto and Baker.
In this paper, we use Heegaard Floer homology to study reducible surgeries. In particular, suppose K is a non-cable knot in the three-sphere with an L-space surgery. If p-surgery on K is reducible, we show that p equals 2g(K)-1. This implies that any knot with an L-space surgery has at most one reducible surgery, a fact that we show additionally for any knot of genus at most two.
Let $M$ be an orientable, irreducible $3$-manifold admitting a weakly reducible genus three Heegaard splitting as a minimal genus Heegaard splitting. In this article, we prove that if $[f]$, $[g]\in Mod(M)$ give the same correspondence between two isotopy classes of generalized Heegaard splittings consisting of two Heegaard splittings of genus two, say $[\mathbf{H}]\to[\mathbf{H}']$, then there exists a representative $h$ of the difference $[h]=[g]\cdot[f]^{-1}$ such that (i) $h$ preserves a suitably chosen embedding of the Heegaard surface $F'$ obtained by amalgamation from $\mathbf{H}'$ whic…
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 group of the genus-$2$ splitting was shown to be finitely presented. In this work, we study the remaining generic lens spaces, and show that the mapping class group of the genus-$2$ Heegaard splitting is finitely presented for any lens space by giving its explicit presentation. As an application, we show that the fundamental groups of the spaces of the genus-$…
Let (V,W;F) be a weakly reducible, unstabilized, genus three Heegaard splitting in an orientable, irreducible 3-manifold M and DVW(F) the subset of the disk complex D(F) consisting of simplices having at least one vertex from V and at least one vertex from W. In this article, we describe the shape of DVW(F) and prove that there is a function from the components of DVW(F) to the isotopy classes of the generalized Heegaard splittings obtained by weak reductions from (V,W;F), where this function describes how the thick levels are embedded in the relevant compression bodies.
A Heegaard splitting which admits a unique pair of disjoint compression disks on distinct sides is said to be keen weakly reducible. This paper provides an construction of keen weakly reducible Heegaard splittings of arbitrary genus except 2. Furthermore, critical Heegaard splittings may yield if we change some conditions.
We show that for any two Heegaard splittings of genus $p$ and $q$ for the same closed 3-manifold, there is a common stabilization of genus at most 3/2 p + 2q - 1. One may compare this to recent examples of Heegaard splittings whose smallest common stabilizations have genus at least $p+q$ or $p + 1/2 q$ depending on the notion of equivalence.
We show that after one stabilization, a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting of suitably large genus of a graph manifold is isotopic to an amalgamation along a modified version of the system of canonical tori in the JSJ decomposition. As a corollary, two strongly irreducible Heegaard splittings of a graph manifold of suitably large genus are isotopic after at most one stabilization of the higher genus splitting.
We present a new proof of Reidemeister and Singer's Theorem that any two Heegaard splittings of the same 3-manifold have a common stabilization. The proof leads to an upper bound on the minimal genus of a common stabilization in terms of the number of negative slope inflection points and type-two cusps in a Rubinstein-Scharlemann graphic for the two splittings.
Let two Heegaard splittings $V_1 \cup W_1$ and $V_2 \cup W_2$ of a 3-manifold $M$ be given. We consider the union stabilization $M=V \cup W$ which is a common stabilization of $V_1 \cup W_1$ and $V_2 \cup W_2$ having the property that $V=V_1 \cup V_2$. We show that any two Heegaard splittings of a 3-manifold have a union stabilization. We also give some examples with numerical bounds on the minimal genus of union stabilization. On the other hand, we give an example of a candidate for which the minimal genus of union stabilization is strictly larger than the usual stable genus -- the minimal ge…
We address a special case of the Stabilization Problem for Heegaard splittings, establishing an upper bound on the number of stabilizations required to make a Heegaard splitting of a Haken 3-manifold isotopic to an amalgamation along an essential surface. As a consequence we show that for any positive integer $n$ there are 3-manifolds containing an essential torus and a Heegaard splitting such that the torus and splitting surface must intersect in at least $n$ simple closed curves. These give the first examples of lower bounds on the minimum number of curves of intersection between an essentia…
We construct families of manifolds that have pairs of genus $g$ Heegaard splittings that must be stabilized roughly $g$ times to become equivalent. We also show that when two unstabilized, boundary-unstabilized Heegaard splittings are amalgamated by a "sufficiently complicated" map, the resulting splitting is unstabilized. As a corollary, we produce a manifold that has distance one Heegaard splittings of arbitrarily high genus. Finally, we show that in a 3-manifold formed by a sufficiently complicated gluing, a low genus, unstabilized Heegaard splitting can be expressed in a unique way as an a…
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 increases from zero, more complicated phenomena occur. Kobayashi showed that if a 3-manifold $M^3$ contains an essential torus $T$, then it contains one which can be isotoped to intersect a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting surface $F$ in a collection of simple closed curves which are essential in $T$ and in $F$. In general there is no global bound on t…
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 surfaces is obtained through a deformation to harmonic maps.
In this paper, we show that, for each non-trivial two bridge knot K and for each g > 2, every genus g Heegaard splitting of the exterior E(K) of K is reducible.
For each integer k > 1, Johnson gave a 3-manifold with Heegaard splittings of genera 2k and 2k-1 such that any common stabilization of these two surfaces has genus at least 3k-1. We modify his argument to produce a 3-manifold with two Heegaard splitings of genus 2k such that any common stabilization of them has genus at least 3k.
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 stabilized at least n-2 times to become equivalent. The second is a pair of genus n splittings of a manifold with toroidal boundary that must be stabilized at least n-4 times to become equivalent. The last example is a pair of genus n splittings of a closed 3-manifold that must be stabilized at least ${1/2}n -3$ times to become equivalent, regardless of their orie…
The mapping class group of a Heegaard splitting is the group of automorphisms of the ambient 3-manifold that take the surface onto itself, modulo isotopies that keep the surface on itself. We characterize the mapping classes that restrict to periodic and reducible automorphisms of the surface.
Non-isotopic Heegaard splittings of non-minimal genus were known previously only for very special 3-manifolds. We show in this paper that they are in fact a wide spread phenomenon in 3-manifold theory: We exhibit a large class of knots and manifolds obtained by Dehn surgery on these knots which admit such splittings. Many of the manifolds have irreducible Heegaard splittings of arbitrary large genus. All these splittings are horizontal and are isotopic, after one stabilization, to a multiple stabilization of certain canonical low genus vertical Heegaard splittings.
Let $T$ be a separating incompressible torus in a 3-manifold $M$. Assuming that a genus $g$ Heegaard splitting $V \cup_S W$ can be positioned nicely with respect to $T$ (e.g. $V \cup_S W$ is strongly irreducible), we obtain an upper bound on the number of stabilizations required for $V \cup_S W$ to become isotopic to a Heegaard splitting which is an amalgamation along $T$. In particular, if $T$ is a canonical torus in the JSJ decomposition of $M$, then the number of necessary stabilizations is at most $4g-4$. As a corollary, this establishes an upper bound on the number of stabilizations requi…
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 combinatorial version of a proof by Hass, Thompson and Thurston of a similar theorem, but with an explicit bound in terms of distance. We also show that in a 3-manifold with boundary, the stable genus of a Heegaard splitting and a boundary stabilization of itself is bounded below by the same value.
Suppose $K$ is a knot in $S^3$ with bridge number $n$ and bridge distance greater than $2n$. We show that there are at most ${2n\choose n}$ distinct minimal genus Heegaard splittings of $S^3\setminusη(K)$. These splittings can be divided into two families. Two splittings from the same family become equivalent after at most one stabilization. If $K$ has bridge distance at least $4n$, then two splittings from different families become equivalent only after $n-1$ stabilizations. Further, we construct representatives of the isotopy classes of the minimal tunnel systems for $K$ corresponding to the…
Little is known on the classification of Heegaard splittings for hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Although Kobayashi gave a complete classification of Heegaard splittings for the exteriors of 2-bridge knots, our knowledge of other classes is extremely limited. In particular, there are very few hyperbolic manifolds that are known to have a unique minimal genus splitting. Here we demonstrate that an infinite class of hyperbolic knot exteriors, namely exteriors of certain "twisted torus knots" originally studied by Morimoto, Sakuma and Yokota, have a unique minimal genus Heegaard splitting of genus two. W…
Kevin Hartshorn showed that if a three-dimensional manifold $M$ admits a Heegaard surface $Σ$ with Hempel distance $d$ then every incompressible surface in $M$ has genus at least $\frac{d}{2}$. Scharlemann-Tomova generalized this, proving that in such a manifold, every other Heegaard surface for $M$ of genus $g' < \frac{d}{2}$ is a stabilization of $Σ$. In the present paper, we show that Hartshorn's bound is sharp and Scharlemann-Tomova's bound is very close to sharp. In particular, for every pair of integers $g \geq 2, d \geq 2$, we construct a three-manifold $M$ with a genus $g$, distance $d…
Suppose $V\cup_S W$ is a weakly reducible Heegaard splitting of a closed 3-manifold which admits only $n$ pairs of disjoint compression disks on distinct sides and $g>2$. We show $V\cup_S W$ admits an untelescoping: $(V_1\cup_{S_1}W_1)\cup_F(W_2\cup_{S_2}V_2)$ such that $W_i$ has only one separating compressing disk and $d(S_i)\geq 2$, for $i=1,~2$. If $n>1$, at least one of $d(S_i)$ is 2 and $S$ is a critical Heegaard surface.
We describe for each postive integer $k$ a 3-manifold with Heegaard surfaces of genus $2k$ and $2k-1$ such that any common stabilization of these two surfaces has genus at least $3k-1$. We also show that for every positive $n$, there is a 3-manifold that has $n$ pairwise non-isotopic Heegaard splittings of the same genus all of which are stabilized.
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 splittings. The main theorem is: if N is a compact, connected, orientable 3-manifold with non-empty boundary, containing no S^2 components, and if M is obtained from N by removing the boundary then any two Heegaard splittings of M are properly ambient isotopic. This is a non-compact analogue of the classifications of splittings of (closed surface) x I and (closed…
We prove that if a fibered knot $K$ with genus greater than one in a three-manifold $M$ has a sufficiently complicated monodromy, then $K$ induces a minimal genus Heegaard splitting $P$ that is unique up to isotopy, and small genus Heegaard splittings of $M$ are stabilizations of $P$. We provide a complexity bound in terms of the Heegaard genus of $M$. We also provide global complexity bounds for fibered knots in the three-sphere and lens spaces.
A famous example of Casson and Gordon shows that a Haken 3-manifold can have an infinite family of irreducible Heegaard splittings with different genera. In this paper, we prove that a closed non-Haken 3-manifold has only finitely many irreducible Heegaard splittings, up to isotopy. This is much stronger than the Waldhausen conjecture. Another immediate corollary is that for any irreducible non-Haken 3-manifold M, there is a number N, such that any two Heegaard splittings of M are equivalent after at most N stabilizations.
A manifold which admits a reducible genus-$2$ Heegaard splitting is one of the $3$-sphere, $S^2 \times S^1$, lens spaces or their connected sums. For each of those splittings, the complex of Haken spheres is defined. When the manifold is the $3$-sphere, $S^2 \times S^1$ or the connected sum whose summands are lens spaces or $S^2 \times S^1$, the combinatorial structure of the complex has been studied by several authors. In particular, it was shown that those complexes are all contractible. In this work, we study the remaining cases, that is, when the manifolds are lens spaces. We give a precis…
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 universally shared by the new examples: some of the new examples have Hempel distance 3, and it is not clear that a single stabilization always makes the multiple splittings isotopic.
We define integral measures of complexity for Heegaard splittings based on the graph dual to the curve complex and on the pants complex defined by Hatcher and Thurston. As the Heegaard splitting is stabilized, the sequence of complexities turns out to converge to a non-trivial limit depending only on the manifold. We then use a similar method to compare different manifolds, defining a distance which converges under stabilization to an integer related to Dehn surgeries between the two manifolds.
In this paper it is shown that manifolds admitting minimal genus weakly reducible but irreducible Heegaard splittings contain an essential surface. This is an extension of a well known theorem of Casson-Gordon to manifolds with non-empty boundary. The situation for non-minimal genus Heegaard splittings is also investigated and it is shown that boundary stabilizations are stabilizations for manifolds which are boundary primitive.
For a boundary-reducible $3$-manifold $M$ with $\partial M$ a genus $g$ surface, we show that if $M$ admits a genus $g+1$ Heegaard surface $S$, then the disk complex of $S$ is simply connected. Also we consider the connectedness of the complex of reducing spheres. We investigate the intersection of two reducing spheres for a genus three Heegaard splitting of $\mathrm{(torus)} \times I$.
In this paper we introduce "critical surfaces", which are described via a 1-complex whose definition is reminiscent of the curve complex. Our main result is that if the minimal genus common stabilization of a pair of strongly irreducible Heegaard splittings of a 3-manifold is not critical, then the manifold contains an incompressible surface. Conversely, we also show that if a non-Haken 3-manifold admits at most one Heegaard splitting of each genus, then it does not contain a critical Heegaard surface. In the final section we discuss how this work leads to a natural metric on the space of stro…
We classify isotopy classes of irreducible Heegaard splittings of solvmanifolds. If the monodromy of the solvmanifold can be expressed as a 2 x 2 matrix with 0 in the lower right hand corner (as always is true when the absolute value of the trace is 3), then any irreducible splitting is strongly irreducible and of genus two. If furthermore the absolute value of the trace is 4 or greater, then any two such splittings are isotopic. If the absolute value of the trace is 3 then, up to isotopy, there are exactly two irreducible splittings, their associated hyperelliptic involutions commute, and the…
From the view of Heegaard splitting, it is known that if a closed orientable 3-manifold admits a distance at least three Heegaard splitting, then it is hyperbolic. However, for a closed orientable 3-manifold admitting only distance at most two Heegaard splittings, there are examples shows that it could be reducible, Seifert, toroidal or hyperbolic. According to Thurston's Geometrization conjecture, the most important piece of eight geometries is hyperbolic. Thus to read out a hyperbolic 3-manifold from a distance two Heegaard splittings is critical in studying Heegaard splittings. Inspired by …
We show that given a partially flat angled ideal triangulation for a 3-manifold $M$ with boundary (as defined by Lackenby), there is an algorithm to produce a list of Heegaard splittings for $M$ such that below a given genus $g$, each isotopy class appears exactly once. In particular, this algorithm determines precisely when two almost normal surfaces represent Heegaard splittings that are isotopic in the ambient 3-manifold. A closely related algorithm determines the smallest genus common stabilization of any two Heegaard splittings on the list. The methods, in fact, characterize isotopies bet…
Let M_1 and M_2 be compact, orientable 3-manifolds with incompressible boundary, and M the manifold obtained by gluing with a homeomorphism $ϕ:\bdy M_1 \to \bdy M_2$. We analyze the relationship between the sets of low genus Heegaard splittings of M_1, M_2, and M, assuming the map ϕis "sufficiently complicated." This analysis yields counter-examples to the Stabilization Conjecture, a resolution of the higher genus analogue of a conjecture of Gordon, and a result about the uniqueness of expressions of Heegaard splittings as amalgamations.
We show that if two 3-manifolds with toroidal boundary are glued via a `sufficiently complicated' map then every Heegaard splitting of the resulting 3-manifold is weakly reducible. Additionally, if Z is a manifold obtained by gluing X and Y, two connected small manifolds with incompressible boundary, along a closed surface F. Then the genus g(Z) of Z is greater than or equal to 1/2(g(X)+g(Y)-2g(F)). Both results follow from a new technique to simplify the intersection between an incompressible surface and a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting.
We show that any smooth, closed, oriented, connected 4--manifold can be trisected into three copies of $\natural^k (S^1 \times B^3)$, intersecting pairwise in 3--dimensional handlebodies, with triple intersection a closed 2--dimensional surface. Such a trisection is unique up to a natural stabilization operation. This is analogous to the existence, and uniqueness up to stabilization, of Heegaard splittings of 3--manifolds. A trisection of a 4--manifold $X$ arises from a Morse 2--function $G:X \to B^2$ and the obvious trisection of $B^2$, in much the same way that a Heegaard splitting of a 3--m…
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 unrelated areas: eigenvalues of the Laplacian, and Heegaard splittings. We first give a necessary and sufficient condition, in terms of spectral geometry, for a finitely presented group to have a finite index subgroup with infinite abelianisation. For negatively curved 3-manifolds, we show that this is equivalent to a statement about generalised Heegaard splitt…
Given a Heegaard splitting of a three-manifold Y, we consider the SL(2,C) character variety of the Heegaard surface, and two complex Lagrangians associated to the handlebodies. We focus on the smooth open subset corresponding to irreducible representations. On that subset, the intersection of the Lagrangians is an oriented d-critical locus in the sense of Joyce. Bussi associates to such an intersection a perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles. We prove that in our setting, the perverse sheaf is an invariant of Y, i.e., it is independent of the Heegaard splitting. The hypercohomology of this sheaf …
Let M be a closed 3-manifold with a given Heegaard splitting. We show that after a single stabilization, some core of the stabilized splitting has arbitrarily high distance with respect to the splitting surface. This generalizes a result of Minsky, Moriah, and Schleimer for knots in S^3. We also show that in the complex of curves, handlebody sets are either coarsely distinct or identical. We define the coarse mapping class group of a Heeegaard splitting, and show that if (S, V, W) is a Heegaard splitting of genus greater than or equal to 2, then the coarse mapping class group of (S,V,W) is iso…