Incompressibility of measured laminations in 3-manifolds (Q1826162)

The author proves that every transversely orientable measured lamination with incompressible leaves in a 3-manifold can be carried by an incompressible branched surface. He analyzes how the leaves intersect the handles in a handle decomposition, and by a sequence of modifications produces a new handle decomposition in which each leaf of the lamination meets each handle in a standard way. The handle decomposition is constructed to have certain properties which ensure that the branched surface obtained by coalescing the parallel leaves in each handle can be made incompressible by a splitting process. The argument is well-written with useful figures provided. In the introduction, the author explains that after completing the paper, he was informed that his result has been proved by A. Hatcher, in work as yet unpublished, and also by D. Gabai and U. Oertel. He notes that his definition of measured lamination differs from theirs, although he does not explain what the differences are.