A universal bound for surfaces in \(3\)-manifolds with a given Heegaard genus (Q1591999)

Let \(M\) be a compact orientable irreducible 3-manifold (possibly, with boundary). A surface \(F\) in \(M\) is a connected compact 2-manifold properly embedded in \(M\). There are several results which bound the number of disjoint incompressible surfaces in \(M\) (see for example [\textit{J. Hempel}, 3-manifolds, Ann. Math. Stud. 86 (1976; Zbl 0345.57001); \textit{W. Jaco}, Lectures on three-manifold topology, Reg. Conf. Ser. Math. 43 (1981; Zbl 0433.57001); \textit{W. Sherman}, On the Kneser-Haken finiteness theorem: a sharpness result, Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. California Los Angeles, 1992; \textit{B. Freedman} and \textit{M. H. Freedman}, Topology 37, No. 1, 133-147 (1998; Zbl 0896.57012)]). However, in all of these results, the bound depends on a given manifold, i.e., it is not universal. The aim of the authors is to find some kind of universal bound. The main result of the paper is the following: Consider the class \({\mathcal M}^3(g)\) of all compact orientable irreducible 3-manifolds with Heegaard genus \(g\). Let \(b\) be an integer greater than zero. Then there is a constant \(C(g,b)\), depending only on \(g\) and \(b\), such that for any \(M\in{\mathcal M}^3(g)\), if \(F_1,\dots,F_k\), \(k>C(g,b)\) is a collection of disjoint incompressible surfaces in \(M\), such that all Betti numbers \(b_1(F_i)<b\), \(1\leq i\leq k\), and no \(F_i\) is a boundary parallel annulus or a boundary parallel disk, then at least two numbers \(F_i\) and \(F_j\) are parallel.