A criterion for homeomorphism between closed Haken manifolds (Q1810412)

The main result of this carefully written and motivated paper is the following theorem. Let \(M\) and \(N\) be closed Haken 3-manifolds with the same Gromov simplicial volume. Let \(f:M \to N\) be a map such that for any regular or non-regular finite covering \(\widetilde N\) of \(N\) the induced map \(\widetilde f:\widetilde M \to \widetilde N\) is a \(\mathbb Z\)-homology equivalence; then \(f\) is homotopic to a homeomorphism. The Haken 3-manifolds with zero Gromov volume are exactly the graph-manifolds (which decompose along tori into Seifert fibered spaces), and for these the result has been proved by \textit{B. Perron} and \textit{P. Shalen} [Topology Appl. 99, 1-39 (1999; Zbl 0935.57023)]. In the present paper, the case of 3-manifolds is considered whose characteristic torus-decompositions contain hyperbolic manifolds. As an application, a condition on a cobordism between Haken 3-manifolds is given which guarantees that they are homeomorphic.