Bounds for the genus of a normal surface

DOI10.2140/GT.2016.20.1625MaRDI QIDQ309036zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors William Jaco, Jonathan Spreer, Stephan Tillmann, Jesse Johnson

Publication date 7 September 2016

Published in Geometry \& Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.6413

zbMATH Keywords

3-manifoldgenusincompressible surfaceminimal triangulationnormal surfacerealisation problemThurston norm

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05) General geometric structures on low-dimensional manifolds (57M50) Embeddings and immersions in topological manifolds (57N35) Triangulating manifolds (57Q15)

Abstract: This paper gives sharp linear bounds on the genus of a normal surface in a triangulated compact, orientable 3--manifold in terms of the quadrilaterals in its cell decomposition---different bounds arise from varying hypotheses on the surface or triangulation. Two applications of these bounds are given. First, the minimal triangulations of the product of a closed surface and the closed interval are determined. Second, an alternative approach to the realisation problem using normal surface theory is shown to be less powerful than its dual method using subcomplexes of polytopes.

Review text

A normal surface \(S\) in a compact triangulated \(3\)-manifold intersects the \(3\)-simplices in a number of triangles and quadrilaterals. Upper bounds for the genus of such surfaces have been obtained as a function of the number of quadrilaterals by \textit{T. Kalelkar} [Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Math. Sci. 118, No. 2, 227--233 (2008; Zbl 1149.57034)], by \textit{J. Spreer} [Discrete Math. 311, No. 14, 1295--1309 (2011; Zbl 1235.05164)] and by \textit{B. A. Burton} and \textit{M. Ozlen} [Algorithmica 65, No. 4, 772--801 (2013; Zbl 1270.57060)].NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe present authors improve previous bounds, obtaining sharp ones, and utilize results of Burton and Ozlen to bound the smallest genus of an incompressible surface in a \(3\)-manifold in terms of its complexity. Further application characterizes minimal triangulations of the product of a surface with the unit interval.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEBelow are some of the inequalities obtained: \(q\) denotes the number of quadrilaterals of \(S\); \(\|S\|\) denotes the Thurston norm of the homology class represented by \(S\); unless otherwise explicitly stated \(M\) is a triangulated, compact, orientable \(3\)-manifold; similarly, unless stated otherwise, \(S\) is a closed, connected, orientable normal surface in \(M\); \(\|S\|\leqslant q\), \(g\leqslant \frac{3}{2}q\).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIf \(M\) is simplicially or minimally triangulated and irreducible, \(g\leqslant \frac{7}{6}q.\)NEWLINENEWLINE NEWLINEIf \(S\) is non-orientable, \(g\leqslant 3q + 1\) and this is sharp.NEWLINENEWLINE NEWLINEIf \(\partial M \neq \emptyset\) and \(S\) has \(b\) boundary components, \(g\leqslant \frac{3}{2}q - (b-1)/2\) and when \(b=2, g=q=1\) this is sharp.NEWLINENEWLINE NEWLINEIf \(S\) is incompressible, \(g\leqslant 1/{2}q\) and this is sharp if \(\partial M \neq \emptyset\) and \(g\geqslant 1 \).NEWLINENEWLINE NEWLINEIf \(M\) has complexity \(c\) and \(S\) is incompressible of minimal genus, \(g \leqslant (2c^2 + 1)(\sqrt6)^c\).

Recommendations

• Euler characteristic and quadrilaterals of normal surfaces
• \(\mathbb Z_2\)-Thurston norm and complexity of 3-manifolds
• Incompressibility and normal minimal surfaces
• Normal surfaces in topologically finite 3-manifolds
• A chain complex and quadrilaterals for normal surfaces
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2227022
• A note on Kneser-Haken finiteness
• Generating disjoint incompressible surfaces
• Filling triangulated surfaces
• A complexity of compact \(3\)-manifolds via immersed surfaces

Cited in

(7)

• The Gromov norm of the product of two surfaces
• Bounding curves in algebraic surfaces by genus and Chern numbers
• Filling triangulated surfaces
• Crushing surfaces of positive genus
• Small triangulations of simply connected 4-manifolds
• Complexity of 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn filling
• Pencil genus for normal surface singularities

This page was built for publication: Bounds for the genus of a normal surface

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q309036)