A finite graphic calculus for 3-manifolds (Q1911547)

The authors study ``standard spines'' of 3-manifolds. They obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a ``standard polyhedron'' to be a standard spine of an orientable 3-manifold. They find a way to describe compact oriented 3-manifolds by planar graphs with some additional structure. They call these decorated graphs. The decorated graph corresponds to a standard spine with additional structure. They call these decorated spines. They go on to describe a calculus on the graphs which follows from Matveev-Piergallini moves on standard spines, these being described for example in [\textit{R. Piergallini}, Standard moves for standard polyhedra and spines, Topology, 3rd Natl. Meet., Trieste/Italy 1986, Suppl. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, II. Ser. 18, 391-414 (1988; Zbl 0672.57004)].