An algorithm to detect laminar 3-manifolds (Q1426821)

Essential laminations on three-manifolds were introduced by \textit{D.~Gabai} and \textit{U.~Oertel}, as a generalization of incompressible surfaces, measured incompressible laminations, Reebless foliations and foliations arising from pseudo-Anosov flows on fibered manifolds. It was a natural program to see how far the results on Haken manifolds can be generalized to the setting of manifolds containing essential laminations. In this program, a natural question is to see to what extent a three-manifold with infinite fundamental group and with no \(\mathbb{Z}^2\) subgroup in its fundamental group contains an essential lamination, and related to this question is the problem of descibing an algorithm to determine whether or not a three-manifold contains an essential lamination or a Reebless foliation. Here the authors prove the existence of such an algorithm. This answers Problem 2.3 in \textit{D.~Gabai}'s list [\textit{W.~H.~Kazez} (ed.), Geometric Topology (Athens, Georgia, USA)(1993; Zbl 0888.57025)].