Traversing three-manifold triangulations and spines (Q2190077): Difference between revisions

Consider a simplicial complex, obtained from a finite number of tetrahedra by pairwise identifying their faces such that no face remains unglued. ``The local picture near a vertex in the identification space can be understood by tracing the small triangles in the tetrahedra cutting off the vertices that are identified under the face gluings. If these small triangles globally glue up to a sphere, then in the identification space the sphere formed by the triangles bounds a ball and the vertex in the identification space looks like the centre of a ball. In this case, the vertex is called \textit{material}.'' It is known that the set of all triangulations of a closed three-dimensional manifold \(M\) is connected under 1-4, 2-3, 3-2 and 4-1 moves due to classical work by Alexander, Newman, Moise and Pachner. Later \textit{M. Banagl} and \textit{G. Friedman} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 4, 521--542 (2004; Zbl 1067.57019)] extended the above result to closed three-dimensional pseudo-manifolds. On the other hand, \textit{S. Matveev} [Algorithmic topology and classification of 3-manifolds. 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer (2007; Zbl 1128.57001)] and \textit{R. Piergallini} [Suppl. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo (2) 18, 391--414 (1988; Zbl 0672.57004)] generalized the first result and proved that the set of all triangulations of a closed three-dimensional manifold \(M\) with exactly one material vertex is connected under 2-3 and 3-2 moves, except for triangulations with a single tetrahedron. Later, \textit{G. Amendola} [Math. Nachr. 278, No. 9, 975--994 (2005; Zbl 1073.57014)] proved that for a three-dimensional manifold or pseudo-manifold \(M\), the set of triangulations of \(M\) with a fixed number (possibly zero) of material vertices is connected under 2-3 and 3-2 moves, excepting triangulations with a single tetrahedron. These results (and their proofs) are phrased in the dual language of spines. From the authors' summary: ``The purpose of this note is threefold. We wish to popularise Amendola's result; we give a combined proof for both closed and non-compact manifolds that emphasises the dual viewpoints of triangulations and spines; and we give a proof replacing a key general position argument due to Matveev [loc. cit.] with a more combinatorial argument inspired by the theory of subdivisions.''