The disjoint curve property (Q1882814)

The results of this paper are related to the classification problem for Heegard splittings of three-manifolds. The disjoint curve property for a three-manifold has been introduced by \textit{A. Thompson} in her paper [Topology Appl. 97, No. 3, 273--279 (1999; Zbl 0935.57022)], as a generalization of reducibility. By this work of A. Thompson and by work of J. Hempel, it is known that if a three-manifold is either reducible, toroidal or Seifert fibered, then any Heegard splitting of that manifold has the disjoint curve property. On the other hand, Hempel provided examples of splittings which are very har from having the disjoint curve property. In the paper under review, the author proves the following Theorem: Every splitting of a three-manifold of sufficiently large genus has the disjoint curve property. The main technical result of the paper which is used to prove the theorem is the following Proposition: Any almost normal Heegard splitting with sufficiently large genus has the disjoint curve property. The author makes a relation between this work and the generalized Waldhausen conjecture, and the paper contains a list of related conjectures and open question.