Characteristic submanifold theory and toroidal Dehn filling (Q436123)

Let \(M\) be a hyperbolic knot manifold, that is, a compact, connected, orientable, hyperbolic 3-manifold whose boundary is a torus. Denote by \(M(\alpha)\) the Dehn filling of \(M\) with slope \(\alpha\). Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn surgery theorem implies that all but finitely many fillings of \(M\) are hyperbolic manifolds. Set \({\mathcal E}(M)=\{\alpha |\) \(M(\alpha)\) is not hyperbolic\(\}\) and call its elements exceptional slopes. Denote by \(\Delta({\mathcal E} (M))\) the diameter of \({\mathcal E}(M)\), that is, the maximal distance between any such pair of slopes. It is important to understand the structure of \({\mathcal E}(M)\). Gordon has conjectured that for any such manifold \(M\), \(\sharp {\mathcal E}(M)\leq 10\) and \(\Delta({\mathcal E}(M)) \leq 8.\) Perelman's solution of the geometrization conjecture implies that if a 3-manifold is not hyperbolic, then it is either (I) reducible, or (II) toroidal, or (III) a Seifert fiber space over \(S^{2}\) with at most 3 exceptional fibers. Moreover, a manifold of type (III) is either (1) \(S^{3}\), or (2) a lens space, or (3) a small Seifert space. The conjecture by Gordon has been verified in all cases other than small Seifert filling slopes. In the paper under review the authors verify the conjecture when \(\alpha\) is a small Seifert filling slope and \(\beta\) is a toroidal filling slope in the generic case where \(M\) admits no punctured-torus fiber or semi-fiber, and there is no incompressible torus in \(M(\beta)\) which intersects \(\partial M\) in one or two components. Under these hypotheses they show that \(\Delta(\alpha, \beta) \leq 5\).