This is a "software upgrade" to a paper originally published in 1976, with cleaner statements and improved proofs. The main result is that, in a Haken 3-manifold, the space of all incompressible surfaces in a single isotopy class is contractible, except when the surface is the fiber of a surface bundle structure, in which case the space of all surfaces isotopic to the fiber has the homotopy type of a circle (the fibers). The main application from the 1976 paper is also rederived, the theorem (proved independently by Ivanov) that the diffeomorphism group of a Haken 3-manifold has contractible components, except in the case of certain Seifert manifolds when the components of the diffeomorphism group have the homotopy type of a circle or torus acting on the manifold.
We show that a knot in $S^3$ with an infinite number of distinct incompressible Seifert surfaces contains a closed incompressible surface in its complement.
Let $\F$ be a compact surface and let $I$ be the unit interval. This paper gives a standard form for all 2-sided incompressible surfaces in the 3-manifold $\F \times I$. Since $\F \times I$ is a handlebody when $\F$ has boundary, this standard form applies to incompressible surfaces in a handlebody.
We show that any closed incompressible surface in the complement of a positive knot is algebraically non-split from the knot, positive knots cannot bound non-free incompressible Seifert surfaces and that the splitability and the primeness of positive knots and links can be seen from their positive diagrams.
In this paper, we study on knots and closed incompressible surfaces in the 3-sphere via Morse functions. We show that both of knots and closed incompressible surfaces can be isotoped into a "related Morse position" simultaneously. As an application, we have following results. *Smallness of Montesinos tangles with length two and Kinoshita's theta curve *Classification of closed incompressible and meridionally incompressible surfaces in 2-bridge theta-curve and handcuff graph complements and the complements of links which admit Hopf tangle decompositions.
In this paper, we characterize closed incompressible surfaces of genus two in the complements of 3-bridge knots and links. This characterization includes that of essential 2-string tangle decompositions for 3-bridge knots and links.
When a Dehn filled link manifold contains a geometrically incompressible one-sided surface, it is shown there is a unique boundary incompressible position that the surface can take in the link space. The proof uses a version of the sweep-out technique from two-sided Heegaard splitting theory. When applied to one-sided Heegaard splittings, this result can be used to complete the classification of one-sided splittings of (2p, q) fillings of Figure 8 knot space: determining that fillings with |2p/q|<3 have two non-isotopic geometrically incompressible one-sided splitting surfaces.
Culler and Shalen, and later Yoshida, give ways to construct incompressible surfaces in 3-manifolds from ideal points of the character and deformation varieties, respectively. We work in the case of hyperbolic punctured torus bundles, for which the incompressible surfaces were classified by Floyd and Hatcher. We convert non fiber incompressible surfaces from their form to the form output by Yoshida's construction, and run his construction backwards to give (for non semi-fibers, which we identify) the data needed to construct ideal points of the deformation variety corresponding to those surfac…
In this paper, by putting a separating incompressible surface in a 3-manifold into Morse position relative to the height function associated to a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting, we show that an incompressible subsurface of the Heegaard splitting can be found, by decomposing the 3-manifold along the separating surface. Further if the Heegaard surface is of Hempel distance at least 4, then there is a pair of such subsurfaces on both sides of the given separating surface. This gives a particularly simple hierarchy for the 3-manifold.
We prove results showing that the existence of essential maps of surfaces in a manifold M' obtained from a 3-manifold M by Dehn filling implies the existence of essential maps of surfaces in M.
Applying Morse theory, we give a standard form for a class of surfaces which includes all the properly embedded incompressible surfaces in 3-dimensional handlebodies. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition to determine the incompressibility of such surfaces placed in our standard form. Our algorithm is practical. Several examples are given to test the algorithm.
Suppose M is a cusped finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold and T is an ideal triangulation of M with essential edges. We show that any incompressible surface S in M that is not a virtual fiber can be isotoped into spunnormal form in T . The proof is based directly on ideas of W. Thurston.
We classify incompressible, boundary-incompressible, nonorientable surfaces in punctured-torus bundles over $S^1$. We use the ideas of Floyd, Hatcher, and Thurston. The main tool is to put our surface in the "Morse position" with respect to the projection of the bundle into the basis S^1.
We give a description of all (1,2)-knots in S^3 which admit a closed meridionally incompressible surface of genus 2 in their complement. That is, we give several constructions of (1,2)-knots having a meridionally incompressible surface of genus 2, and then show that any such surface for a (1,2)-knot must come from one of the constructions. As an application, we show explicit examples of tunnel number one knots which are not (1,2)-knots.
One can embed arbitrarily many disjoint, non-parallel, non-boundary parallel, incompressible surfaces in any three manifold with at least one boundary component of genus two or greater [4]. This paper proves the contrasting, but not contradictory result that although one can sometimes embed arbitrarily many surfaces in a 3-manifold it is impossible to ever embed an infinite number of such surfaces in any compact, orientable 3-manifold M.
In this paper, we give an algorithm to build all compact orientable atoroidal Haken 3-manifolds with tori boundary or closed orientable Haken 3-manifolds, so that in both cases, there are embedded closed orientable separating incompressible surfaces which are not tori. Next, such incompressible surfaces are related to Heegaard splittings. For simplicity, we focus on the case of separating incompressible surfaces, since non-separating ones have been extensively studied. After putting the surfaces into Morse position relative to the height function associated to the Heegaard splittings, a thin p…
In the closed, non-Haken, hyperbolic class of examples generated by (2p,q) Dehn fillings of Figure 8 knot space, the geometrically incompressible one-sided surfaces are identified by the filling ratio p/q and determined to be unique in all cases. When applied to one-sided Heegaard splittings, this can be used to classify all geometrically incompressible splittings in this class of closed, hyperbolic examples; no analogous classification exists for two-sided Heegaard splittings.
We study the existence of incompressible embeddings of surfaces into the genus two handlebody. We show that for every compact surface with boundary, orientable or not, there is an incompressible embedding of the surface into the genus two handlebody. In the orientable case the embedding can be either separating or non-separating. We also consider the case in which the genus two handlebody is replaced by an orientable 3-manifold with a compressible boundary component of genus greater than or equal to two.
We generalize a theorem of Finkelstein and Moriah and show that if a link $L$ has a $2n$-plat projection satisfying certain conditions, then its complement contains some closed essential surfaces. In most cases these surfaces remain essential after any totally nontrivial surgery on $L$.
For a genus g handlebody H a simplicial complex, with vertices being isotopy classes of certain incompressible surfaces in H, is constructed and several properties are established. In particular, this complex naturally contains, as a subcomplex, the complex of curves of the boundary surface of H. As in the classical theory, the group of automorphisms of this complex is identified with the mapping class group of the handlebody.
The fundamental group of every surface that is not the projective plane or Klein bottle has a representation to a torsion-free group of upper-triangular matrices in SL(2,R) with no simple loop (i.e. a nontrivial element representing a simple closed curve) in the kernel.
An incompressible surface $F$ on the boundary of a compact orientable 3-manifold $M$ is arc-extendible if there is an arc $γ$ on $\partial M - $ Int $F$ such that $F \cup N(γ)$ is incompressible, where $N(γ)$ is a regular neighborhood of $γ$ in $\partial M$. Suppose for simplicity that $M$ is irreducible, and $F$ has no disk components. If $M$ is a product $F\times I$, or if $\partial M - F$ is a set of annuli, then clearly $F$ is not arc-extendible. The main theorem of this paper shows that these are the only obstructions for $F$ to be arc-extendible.
We study incompressible surfaces constructed by Culler-Shalen theory in the context of twisted Alexander polynomials. For a $1$st cohomology class of a $3$-manifold the coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials induce regular functions on the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that if an ideal point gives a Thurston norm minimizing non-separating surface dual to the cohomology class, then the regular function of the highest degree has a finite value at the ideal point.
Let $F$ be an incompressible, meridionally incompressible and not boundary-parallel surface with boundary in the complement of an algebraic tangle $(B,T)$. Then $F$ separates the strings of $T$ in $B$ and the boundary slope of $F$ is uniquely determined by $(B,T)$ and hence we can define the slope of the algebraic tangle. In addition to the Conway's tangle sum, we define a natural product of two tangles. The slopes and binary operation on algebraic tangles lead an algebraic structure which is isomorphic to the rational numbers. We introduce a new knot and link class, algebraically alternating …
Let M be $S^3$, $S^1\times S^2$, or a lens space L(p,q), and let k be a (1,1)-knot in M, i.e., a knot which is of 1-bridge with respect to a Heegaard torus. We show that if there is a closed meridionally incompressible surface in the complement of k, then the surface and the knot can be put in a special position, namely, the surface is the boundary of a regular neighborhood of a toroidal graph, and the knot is level with respect to that graph. As an application we show that for any such M there exist tunnel number one knots which are not (1,1)-knots.
We show that bordered Heegaard Floer homology detects incompressible surfaces and bordered-sutured Floer homology detects partly boundary parallel tangles and bridges, in natural ways. For example, there is a bimodule Lambda so that the tensor product of CFD(Y) and Lambda is Hom-orthogonal to CFD(Y) if and only if the boundary of Y admits an essential compressing disk. In the process, we sharpen a nonvanishing result of Ni's. We also extend Lipshitz-Ozsváth-Thurston's "factoring" algorithm for computing HF-hat to compute bordered-sutured Floer homology, to make both results on detecting incomp…
Various curve complexes with vertices representing multicurves on a surface $S$ have been defined, for example [3], [4] and [8]. The homology curve complex $\mathcal{HC}(S,α)$ defined in [7] is one such complex, with vertices corresponding to multicurves in a nontrivial integral homology class $α$. Given two multicurves $m_1$ and $m_2$ corresponding to vertices in $\mathcal{HC}(S,α)$, it was shown in [8] that a path in $\mathcal{HC}(S,α)$ connecting these vertices represents a surface in $S\times \mathbb{R}$, and a simple algorithm for constructing minimal genus surfaces of this type was obtai…
We show that if M is a complete, finite-volume, hyperbolic 3-manifold having exactly one cusp, and if H_1(M;Z_2) has dimension at least 6, then M has volume greater than 5.06. We also show that if M is a closed, orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold such that H_1(M;Z_2) has dimension at least 4, and if the image of the cup product map in H^2(M;Z_2) has dimension at most 1, then M has volume greater than 3.08. The proofs of these geometric results involve new topological results relating the Heegaard genus of a closed Haken manifold M to the Euler characteristic of the kishkes (i.e guts) of the comp…
We study the effect of the mapping class group of a reducible 3-manifold $M$ on each incompressible surface that is invariant under a self-homeomorphism of $M$. As an application of this study we answer a question of F. Rodriguez Hertz, M. Rodriguez Hertz and R. Ures: A reducible 3-manifold admits an Anosov torus if and only if one of its prime summands is either the 3-torus, the mapping torus of $-id$, or the mapping torus of a hyperbolic automorphism.
Various structural properties are developed for non-orientable surfaces in link spaces. The Möbius band tree is described to represent genus growth of one-sided surfaces in solid tori. The structure of the Tree allows various insights into the change of genus under boundary slope, which are not possible using the existing continued fractions algorithm. A restriction under which geometrically incompressible, boundary compressible one-sided surfaces have a unique boundary incompressible form away from the boundary is established.
We consider non-orientable closed surfaces of minimum crosscap number in the $(p,q)$-lens space $L(p,q) \cong V_1 \cup_{\partial} V_2$, where $V_1$ and $V_2$ are solid tori. Bredon and Wood gave a formula for calculating the minimum crosscap number. Rubinstein showed that $L(p,q)$ with $p$ even has only one isotopy class of such surfaces, and it is represented by a surface in a standard form, which is constructed from a meridian disk in $V_1$ by performing a finite number of band sum operations in $V_1$ and capping off the resulting boundary circle by a meridian disk of $V_2$. We show that the…
Suppose a link K in a 3-manifold M is in bridge position with respect to two different bridge surfaces P and Q, both of which are c-weakly incompressible in the complement of K. Then either P and Q can be properly isotoped to intersect in a nonempty collection of curves that are essential (including non-meridional) on both surfaces, or K is a Conway product with respect to an incompressible Conway sphere that naturally decomposes both P and Q into bridge surfaces for the respective factor link(s).
Let $M$ be a smooth connected compact surface and $P$ be either a real line or a circle. This paper proceeds the study of the stabilizers and orbits of smooth functions on $M$ with respect to the right action of the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$. A large class of smooth maps $f:M\to P$ with isolated singularities is considered and it is shown that the general problem of calculation of the fundamental group of the orbit of $f$ reduces to the case when the Euler characteristic of $M$ is non-negative. For the proof of main result incompressible subsurfaces and cellular automorphisms of surfaces…
In this paper we give a complete characterization of those knotted toroidal sets that can be realized as attractors for both discrete and continuous dynamical systems globally defined in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We also see that the techniques used to solve this problem can be used to give sufficient conditions to ensure that a wide class of subcompacta of $\mathbb{R}^3$ that are attractors for homeomorphisms must also be attractors for flows. In addition we study certain attractor-repeller decompositions of $\mathbb{S}^3$ which arise naturally when considering toroidal sets.
If M is a manifold with compressible boundary, we analyze essential disks in M, as well as incompressible, but not necessarily boundary incompressible, surfaces in M. We are most interested in the case where M is a handlebody or compression body. The analysis depends on a new normal surface theory. We hope the normal surface theory will be used in other papers to describe objects representing limits of essential disks in a handlebody or a 3-manifold with compressible boundary. For certain automorphisms of handlebodies, these disk limits should serve as invariant objects akin to laminations and…
A combinatorial condition is obtained for when immersed or embedded incompressible surfaces in compact 3-manifolds with tori boundary components remain incompressible after Dehn surgery. A combinatorial characterisation of hierarchies is described. A new proof is given of the topological rigidity theorem of Hass and Scott for 3-manifolds containing immersed incompressible surfaces, as found in cubings of non-positive curvature.
We give another proof of a theorem of Scharlemann and Tomova and of a theorem of Hartshorn. The two theorems together say the following. Let M be a compact orientable irreducible 3--manifold and P a Heegaard surface of M. Suppose Q is either an incompressible surface or a strongly irreducible Heegaard surface in M. Then either the Hempel distance d(P) <= 2 genus(Q) or P is isotopic to Q. This theorem can be naturally extended to bicompressible but weakly incompressible surfaces.
In this paper we describe a procedure for refining the given triangulation of a 3-manifold that scales the PL-metric according to a given weight function while creating no new normal surfaces. It is known that an incompressible surface $F$ in a triangulated 3-manifold $M$ is isotopic to a normal surface that is of minimal PL-area in the isotopy class of $F$. Using the above scaling refinement we prove the converse. If $F$ is a surface in a closed 3-manifold $M$ such that for any triangulation $τ$ of $M$, $F$ is isotopic to a $τ$-normal surface $F(τ)$ that is of minimal PL-area in its isotopy c…
We develop a word mechanism applied in knot and link diagrams for the illustration of a diagrammatic property. We also give a necessary condition for determining incompressible and pairwise incompressible surfaces, that are embedded in knot or link complements. Finally, we give a finiteness theorem and an upper bound on the Euler characteristic of such surfaces.
Let M be an orientable and irreducible 3-manifold whose boundary is an incompressible torus. Suppose that M does not contain any closed nonperipheral embedded incompressible surfaces. We will show in this paper that the immersed surfaces in M with the 4-plane property can realize only finitely many boundary slopes. Moreover, we will show that only finitely many Dehn fillings of M can yield 3-manifolds with nonpositive cubings. This gives the first examples of hyperbolic 3-manifolds that cannot admit any nonpositive cubings.
The author defined for each (commutative) Frobenius algebra a skein module of surfaces in a $3$-manifold $M$ bounding a closed $1$-manifold $α\subset \partial M$. The surface components are colored by elements of the Frobenius algebra. The modules are called the Bar-Natan modules of $(M,α)$. In this article we show that Bar-Natan modules are colimit modules of functors associated to Frobenius algebras, decoupling topology from algebra. The functors are defined on a category of $3$-dimensional compression bordisms embedded in cylinders over $M$ and take values in a linear category defined from …
This is the third in a series of papers constructing hyperbolic structures on all Haken three-manifolds. This portion deals with the mixed case of the deformation space for manifolds with incompressible boundary that are not acylindrical, but are more complicated than interval bundles over surfaces. This is a slight revision of a 1986 preprint, with a few figures added, and slight clarifications of some of the text, but with no attempt to connect this to later developments such as groups acting on R-trees, etc.
We investigate the maximal solid tubes around short simple geodesics in hyperbolic three-manifolds and how complex length of curves relate to closed, incompressible, least area minimal surfaces. As applications, we prove, there are some closed hyperbolic three-manifolds fibering over the circle which are not foliated by closed incompressible minimal surfaces diffeomorphic to the fiber. We also show, the existence of quasi-Fuchsian manifolds containing arbitrarily many embedded closed incompressible minimal surfaces. Our strategy is to prove main theorems under natural geometric conditions on t…
