Laminar branched surfaces in 3--manifolds (Q1428376)

The main result is an existence criterion for essential laminations in a closed orientable 3-manifold \(M\), given in terms of branched surfaces. Essential laminations have been introduced by \textit{D. Gabai} and \textit{U. Oertel} [Ann. Math. (2) 130, 41--73 (1989; Zbl 0685.57007)] as a generalization of incompressible surfaces, aimed to extend to non-Haken 3-manifolds the results known for the Haken ones. In the same paper, it is proved that a lamination is essential iff it is carried by an essential branched surface. Here, the author addresses the question of when an essential branched surface \(S \subset M\) carries an essential lamination. He defines \(S\) to be laminar if it does not contain any sink disk, up to collapsing of trivial bubbles. A sink disk is a disk 2-component of \(S\), such that the branch direction points inwards everywhere along its boundary. Then, he shows that any laminar branched surface fully carries an essential lamination and vice versa any essential lamination, except the ones by planes, is fully carried by a laminar branched surface. As a consequence, \(M\) contains an essential lamination iff it contains a laminar branched surface.