The virtual Haken conjecture: Experiments and examples (Q1426823)

A compact \(3\)-manifold is called Haken or sufficiently large if it is irreducible and if there is an embedded nonboundary parallel surface, other than the \(2\)-sphere, which is \(\pi_1\)-injective, that is the embedding map of the surface into the \(3\)-manifold induces an injective homomorphism on the fundamental group level. Such surfaces are called incompressible. These are the only \(3\)-manifolds where the technique of cutting and pasting of Geometric Topology is useful, because once we cut a Haken \(3\)-manifold along an incompressible surface then the resulting \(3\)-manifold again contains an incompressible surface and after a finite number of such cuttings the connected components of the final manifold becomes \(3\)-discs. This is analogous to the surface case where one has to cut along loops and arcs. This structure of Haken \(3\)-manifolds is the basis for induction arguments in the proof of many important results proved about these manifolds. In the light of unique prime decomposition of \(3\)-manifolds due to \textit{H.\ Kneser} [Jahresbericht D. M. V. 38, 248--260 (1929, JFM 55.0311.03)] and \textit{J. W.\ Milnor} [Am. J. Math. 84, 1--7 (1962; Zbl 0108.36501)] it is always enough to consider prime \(3\)-manifolds. To avoid any fake \(3\)-cell (Poincaré Conjecture) one has to assume irreducibility. Even in the class of irreducible \(3\)-manifolds the non-Haken \(3\)-manifolds are out of our reach by standard techniques of low dimensional topology. To save \(3\)-manifold topology from this situation, \textit{F.\ Waldhausen} conjectured that virtually we can treat a non-Haken \(3\)-manifold as a Haken \(3\)-manifold, [Ann. Math. (2) 88, 272--280 (1968; Zbl 0167.52103)]. More precisely he conjectured that any compact irreducible \(3\)-manifold with infinite fundamental group has a finite sheeted cover which is Haken. This conjecture is known as the Virtual Haken Conjecture. It is in general difficult to check if a \(3\)-manifold is Haken. The only well-known result is that if an irreducible \(3\)-manifold has an infinite first integral homology group then the manifold contains a non-separating incompressible surface and hence the manifold is Haken. Considering these facts, \textit{J.\ Hempel} asked a stronger question. He asked whether any compact irreducible \(3\)-manifold with infinite fundamental group has a finite sheeted cover which has an infinite first integral homology group [Pac. J. Math. 112, 83--113 (1984; Zbl 0558.57003)]. So far no example is known to give a negative answer to this question and so this question is called as Virtual Positive Betti number Conjecture (VPBC). Even in the case of Haken \(3\)-manifolds which contain no incompressible torus the VPBC is open. On the other hand it is conjectured in the Geometrization program of Thurston that any irreducible non-Haken \(3\)-manifold is hyperbolic. Also it is proved by Thurston that in fact most \(3\)-manifolds are hyperbolic. Because of these results/conjectures and the strong algebraic nature of hyperbolic manifolds (fundamental groups are discrete subgroups of \(PSL(2, {\mathbb{C}})\)), VPBC has become a very important conjecture in low dimensional topology. In this paper the authors consider VPBC. They establish VPBC in some important instances. First they check using rigorous computer programming that the VPBC is true for all the 10,986 small volume hyperbolic \(3\)-manifolds in the Hodgson-Weeks census. Before we come to the second part of the paper let us recall that any closed \(3\)-manifold can be obtained by Dehn surgery along a knot in the \(3\)-sphere. This is the description of \(3\)-manifolds which is considered to prove VPBC for a certain class of \(3\)-manifolds. It is proved in the paper that for a knot in a \(3\)-manifold, if some Dehn surgery along the knot is a Seifert fibered manifold with hyperbolic base orbifold then most of the Dehn surgeries satisfy VPBC. The authors also give new examples of manifolds where all but finitely many Dehn surgeries satisfy VPBC. Finally, among other results, they prove the interesting result that all non-trivial Dehn surgeries along the figure \(8\) knot in the \(3\)-sphere satisfy VPBC. The results of the paper give a strong evidence to the validity of VPBC (consequently to the Virtual Haken Conjecture) for hyperbolic \(3\)-manifolds. Reviewer's remark: There is a general group theoretic conjecture by the reviewer which says that if the consecutive quotients of the derived series of the fundamental group of an aspherical \(3\)-manifold are finite groups then the derived series stabilizes (Conjecture 0.2 in Math. GT/0306325). It can be shown that if we restrict ourselves to the hyperbolic \(3\)-manifold case then this conjecture of the reviewer is equivalent to VPBC.