3-manifolds which are orbit spaces of diffeomorphisms (Q1012367)

Let \(f\) be a gradient-like Morse-Smale diffeomorphism of a compact 3-dimensional manifold. Recently, it was shown by \textit{C. Bonatti, V. Z. Grines, V. Medvedev}, and \textit{E. Pécou} [Topology 43, No. 2, 369--391 (2004; Zbl 1056.37023)] that such a diffeomorphism is determined up to topological conjugacy by a so-called general scheme. One of the main ingredients of such a scheme is a compact, connected 3-manifold \(V_f\) that is canonically associated to \(f\). The main object of study in this paper is the topology of \(V_f\). In particular, it is shown that \(V_f\) is either diffeomorphic to \(S^2\times S^1\) or it is irreducible (i.e., every embedded sphere bounds a ball), and hence Haken. This result is generalized to the case of an attractor. Let \(A\) be an attractor of an orientation preserving diffeomorphism \(f\) of an oriented closed 3-manifold and let \(W^s(A)\) be the basin of \(A\). It is shown that any connected component of the orbit space of \(f\) in \(W^s(A)\setminus A\) is either \(S^2\times S^1\) or an irreducible Haken manifold.