Generalized Hopfian property, a minimal Haken manifold, and epimorphisms between 3-manifold groups (Q1601229)

In the paper under review, the authors prove the following result: let \(f:M_1\rightarrow M_2\) be a map such that \(f_*(\pi_1(M_1))\) is of finite index in \(\pi_1(M_2)\), where \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are closed, orientable, aspherical, Seifert fibred 3-manifolds, with fundamental groups of the same rank; then \(f\) is of non-zero degree. This result is a partial converse of the fact that if \(f\) is a non-zero degree map between two closed 3-manifolds \(M_1\) and \(M_2\), then \(f_*(\pi_1(M_1))\) is of finite index in \(\pi_1(M_2)\). The authors start by giving various examples to show that the asphericity and rank conditions in the theorem are necessary. They also give several examples of hyperbolic manifolds satisfying the conclusions of their theorem. The proof of the theorem is given under the stronger assumptions that the base orbifolds of \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are orientable and that \(f\) is \(\pi_1\)-surjective. It is then observed that to obtain the proof in the more general setting it is sufficient to adapt work of \textit{C. Huang} [Acta Scien. Nature Peking Univ. 35, 577-588 (1999)]. The authors then address different questions concerning epimorphisms of fundamental groups of aspherical \(3\)-manifolds, illustrating them with several examples, and use the above result to deduce that: 1) a sequence of epimorphisms \(\pi_1(M_0)\rightarrow\pi_1(M_1)\dots\pi_1(M_n)\dots\), where the \(M_i\)'s are closed, orientable, aspherical Seifert manifolds must contain an isomorphism; 2) given a non-Haken hyperbolic 3-manifold \(M\), there is an epimorphism \(\pi_1(M)\rightarrow\pi_1(M_i)\) only for finitely many closed, orientable, hyperbolic 3-manifolds \(M_i\). The last part of the paper is devoted to the construction of the first known example of a minimal closed manifold which is Haken, (recall that a manifold is minimal if it admits degree-one maps only onto the \(3\)-sphere and itself). The manifold is obtained by gluing together, along their boundaries, two copies of the trefoil knot complement. Its minimality basically follows from a minimality property of the trefoil knot complement established by \textit{M. Boileau} and the second author in [J. Differ. Geom. 43, 789-806 (1996; Zbl 0868.57029)].