Lower bounds for regular genus and gem-complexity of PL 4-manifolds with boundary (Q2126281)

A crystallization \((\Gamma, \gamma)\) of a connected compact PL \(d\)-manifold is a certain type of edge-colored graph (with \((d + 1)\) colors) which represents the manifold. Minimising the number of vertices over all crystallisations of a fixed PL manifold \(M\) yields an invariant called the \textit{gem-complexity} \(k(M)\) of \(M\). The regular genus of a crystallisation \((\Gamma,\gamma)\) is defined to be the smallest genus of a surface into which the graph \((\Gamma,\gamma)\) embeds regularly. Minimising the regular genus over all crystallisations of a fixed PL manifold \(M\) yields another invariant, denoted by \(\mathcal{G}(M)\), called the \textit{regular genus} of \(M\). The regular genus of a PL manifold is a generalisation of the concept of genus into higher dimensions: for orientable surfaces it coincides with the ordinary genus; for orientable 3-manifolds it coincides with the Heegaard genus of the manifold. \textit{B. Basak} and \textit{M. R. Casali} [Forum Math. 29, No. 4, 761--773 (2017; Zbl 1371.57020)] have established the following lower bounds in the case of closed PL 4-manifolds: If \(M\) is a closed connected PL 4-manifold then \(k(M)\geq 3 \chi(M)+10m-6\) and \(\mathcal{G}(M)\geq 2\chi(M)+5m-4\), where \(m\) is the rank of \(\pi_1(M)\). In the article under review, the authors consider PL 4-manifolds with boundaries. They show that if \(M\) is a connected compact PL 4-manifold with \(h\) boundary components, its gem-complexity \(k(M)\) and regular genus \(\mathcal{G}(M)\) satisfy the following: \begin{align*} &k(M)\geq 3\chi(M)+7m+7h-10, \\ &k(M)\geq k(\partial M)+3\chi(M)+4m+6h-9, \\ &\mathcal{G}(M) \geq 2\chi(M) + 3m + 2h - 4, \\ & \mathcal{G}(M) \geq \mathcal{G}(\partial M) + 2\chi(M) + 2m + 2h - 4, \end{align*} where \(m\) is the rank of the fundamental group of the manifold \(M\). They also show that these bounds are sharp for a large class of PL 4-manifolds with boundary.