On boundary primitive manifolds and a theorem of Casson--Gordon (Q1862112)

A closed orientable 3-manifold \(M\) contains an incompressible closed orientable surface \(S\) of positive genus if it has an irreducible and weakly reducible Heegaard splitting of genus \(g\) [\textit{A. Casson} and \textit{C. Gordon}, Topology Appl. 27, 275-283 (1987; Zbl 0632.57010)]. There, a Heegaard splitting is called reducible if each compression body \(V_i\) contains an essential disk \(D_i\) such that \(\partial D_1 \cap \partial D_2\) is a single transverse point. It is called weakly reducible if there are essential disks with \(\partial D_1 \cap \partial D_2 = \emptyset\). In the paper under review, three main results are given. (1) The surface \(S\) can be taken to be non-\(\partial\)-parallel if the genus \(g\) is minimal. (2) If \(M\) has a single boundary component of genus \(h\), then either \(S\) can be taken to be non-\(\partial\)-parallel, or the splitting is a boundary stabilization and \(M\) has a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting of genus \(g-h\). A boundary stabilization is an amalgamation with the Heegaard splitting of type II of \(\partial M \times I\), which is given by the surface obtained from two parallel copies of \(\partial M\) by tubing along a vertical line. See \textit{J. Schultens} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 67, 425-448 (1993; Zbl 0789.57012)] for amalgamation and \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{A. Thompson} [Math. Ann. 295, 549-564, (1993; Zbl 0814.57010)] for splittings of (surface)\(\times I\). (3) If there is a vertical annulus \(A \subset V_1\) and an essential disk \(D \subset V_2\) with \(\partial A \cap \partial D\) a single transverse point, then boundary stabilization on the boundary component intersecting \(\partial A\) yields a stabilized splitting. In Definition 2.1, \(U_1\) should be \((V_1 \cap N) - \eta (\Sigma \cup \Sigma^*)\).