Intersection operations for measured laminations carried by a branched manifold (Q1210359)

For two imbedded loops in an oriented surface which are carried by a single train track, one can define an integer-valued intersection number without requiring orientation on the loops. One fixes an orientation for the I-fibers in a standard fibered neighborhood of the train track (lift to a double cover if the I-fibering is nontrivial), and uses the normal direction thus obtained to define local orientations on the loops and determine signs for their intersection points. Reversing the normal direction reverses both local orientations, so does not change the sign. In this paper, the authors extend these ideas to \(n\)-manifolds carried by a branched \(n\)-manifold in an \((n+1)\)-manifold \(M\). The result is an intersection ``form'' which yields an oriented \((n-1)\)-dimensional homology class. More generally, this is defined on pairs of laminations \(L_ 0\), \(L_ 1\) regarded as elements of the cone of weights which determine measured laminations carried by the branched \(n\)-manifold; the result is a class \(I(L_ 0, L_ 1)\) in \(H_{n-1}(M;R)\), the homology with real coefficients. Then, real-valued \((n+1)\)-forms can be defined on \(H_ n(M;R)\) by \(I(L_ 0,\ldots,L_ n) = I(L_ 0, L_ 1) \cdot I(L_ 2, L_ 3) \cdots I(L_{n - 1},L_ n)\), when \(n\) is odd, and \(J(L_ 0,\ldots,L_ n) = [L_ 0] \cdot I(L_ 1, L_ 2) \cdot I(L_ 3, L_ 4) \cdots I(L_{n-1}, L_ n)\), when \(n\) is even, and the operation on the oriented homology classes is the usual homology intersection (for \(J\), it is required that \(L_ 0\) be transversely oriented). In this paper, the authors calculate explicit formulas for \(I\) and \(J\) in terms of the weights. Independent of this, they define a function on pairs of isotopy classes of closed orientable incompressible surface in a Haken 3-manifold \(M\). It takes values in the collection of finite subsets of \(H_ 1(M;R)\). Representative surfaces \(S_ 1\) and \(S_ 2\) are made transverse, and a collection of branched surfaces is generated by the various ways of flattening \(S_ 1 \cup S_ 2\) to a branched surface along the intersection curves. Each such branched surface determines an intersection element \((S_ 1, S_ 2)\) in \(H_ 1(M;R)\), and the resulting collection of elements is unchanged by isotopy of \(S_ 1\) and \(S_ 2\). One of the main technical tools in the proof is a Morse theory of branched surfaces.