\(\partial\)-reducible handle additions (Q2324549): Difference between revisions

A simple 3-manifold is a 3-manifold that is irreducible, \(\partial\)-irreducible, anannular and atoroidal. A slope on the boundary surface of a simple 3-manifold is called degenerating if the 3-manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to the simple 3-manifold along the slope is non-simple. Note that the resulting 3-manifold is a Dehn filling when the simple 3-manifold is replaced by a knot complement. There are many results about the upper bound of the minimal geometric intersection number of any two degenerating Dehn filling slopes as the set of degenerating Dehn fillings is finite. If the genus of the boundary surface is at least two, \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{Y.-Q. Wu} [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 55, No. 1, 72--89 (1993; Zbl 0802.57005)] found there may be infinitely many degenerating slopes. However, they proved that there are finitely many basic degenerating slopes including separating cases. For any two of these separating degenerating slopes, Scharlemann-Wu proved the minimal geometric intersection number of them is 0 when one of the two resulting 3-manifolds is reducible and the other one is \(\partial\)-reducible, \textit{R. Qiu} and \textit{M. Zhang} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 361, No. 4, 1867--1884 (2009; Zbl 1169.57016)] proved the minimal geometric intersection number of them is at most 2 when the two resulting 3-manifolds are both reducible, \textit{Y. N. Li} et al. [Acta Math. Sin., Engl. Ser. 25, No. 2, 235--244 (2009; Zbl 1180.57024)] discussed the case that the two resulting 3-manifolds are both \(\partial\)-reducible under some condition. In this paper, the authors consider the same case without other conditions. They prove that the minimal geometric intersection number of any two separating degenerating slopes is at most 8 when the two resulting 3-manifolds are both \(\partial\)-reducible. The authors turn the curve intersection problem on a surface into the planar surface intersection problem in the simple 3-manifold. The two planar surfaces come from the intersection of the two \(\partial\)-reducing disks in the resulting 3-manifolds and the simple 3-manifold respectively. Then they construct a graph in each \(\partial\)-reducing disk for the intersection and label each vertex. By considering properties of the graph, they prove the conclusion. The work is full of complex and subtle combinatorial techniques and some of the concepts like the virtual Scharlemann cycle are themselves very useful.