A complexity of compact \(3\)-manifolds via immersed surfaces (Q2162419)

The complexity of a \(3\)-manifold is an important topic in low dimensional topology. It measures how ``complicated'' a manifold is. For compact 3-manifolds, many complexities have been found. For example, the Heegaard genus, the Gromov norm, the Matveev complexity, the surface-complexity and the Hempel distance. In the paper under review, the author generalises the definition of surface-complexity to the compact case and the properties holding in the closed case, and gives bounds as follows: \textbf{Theorem 3}. \begin{itemize} \item[--] Each (connected and compact) \(3\)-manifold has a filling Dehn surface. \item[--] If \(\Sigma_{1}\) and \(\Sigma_{2}\) are homeomorphic filling Dehn surfaces of (connected and compact) \(3\)-manifolds \(M_{1}\) and \(M_{2}\), respectively, with the same number of spherical boundary components, then \(M_{1}\) and \(M_{2}\) are also homeomorphic. \end{itemize} \textbf{Theorem 6}. Let \(M\) be a (connected and compact) \(P^{2}\)-irreducible and boundary-irreducible \(3\)-manifold without essential annuli and Möbius strips. \begin{itemize} \item[--] If \(sc(M) = 0\), the manifold \(M\) is the sphere \(S^{3}\), the ball \(B^{3}\), the projective space \(\mathbb RP^{3}\) or the lens space \(L_{4,1}\). \item[--] If \(sc(M) > 0\), the manifold \(M\) has a minimal filling Dehn surface. \end{itemize} \textbf{Corollary 7}. For any integer \(c\) there exists only a finite number of (connected and compact) \(P^{2}\)-irreducible and boundary-irreducible \(3\)-manifolds without essential annuli and Möbius strips that have surface-complexity \(c\). \textbf{Corollary 8}. The surface-complexity of a (connected and compact) \(P^{2}\)-irreducible and boundary-irreducible \(3\)-manifold without essential annuli and Möbius strips, different from \(S^{3}\), \(B^{3}\), \(\mathbb RP^{3}\) and \(L_{4,1}\), is equal to the minimal number of cubes in an ideal cubulation of \(M\). \textbf{Theorem 10}. Let \(\Sigma\) be a minimal quasi-filling Dehn surface of a (connected and compact) \(P^{2}\)-irreducible and boundary-irreducible \(3\)-manifold \(M\) without essential annuli and Möbius strips. \begin{itemize} \item[--] If \(sc(M) = 0\), one of the following holds: \item[--] \(M\) is the sphere \(S^{3}\) or the ball \(B^{3}\), and \(\Sigma\) is derived from the sphere \(S^{2}\); \item[--] \(M\) is the projective space \(\mathbb RP^{3}\), and \(\Sigma\) is derived from the projective plane \(\mathbb RP^{2}\) or from the double projective plane \(2\times \mathbb RP^{2}\); \item[--] \(M\) is the lens space \(L_{4,1}\), and \(\Sigma\) is derived from the four-hat. \item[--] If \(sc(M) > 0\), the Dehn surface \(\Sigma\) is derived from a minimal filling Dehn surface of \(M\). \end{itemize} \textbf{Theorem 11}. The surface-complexity of the connected sum and of the boundary connected sum of (connected and compact) \(3\)-manifolds is less than or equal to the sum of their surface-complexity. \textbf{Theorem 12}. If a (connected and compact) \(3\)-manifold \(M\) has an ideal triangulation with \(n\) tetrahedra, the inequality \(sc(M)\leq 4n\) holds. \textbf{Theorem 13}. Let \(M\) be a (connected and compact) \(P^{2}\)-irreducible and boundary-irreducible \(3\)-manifold without essential annuli and Möbius strips, different from the lens spaces \(L_{3,1}\) and \(L_{4,1}\); then the inequalities \(sc(M)\leq 4c(M)\) and \(c(M)\leq 8sc(M)\) hold. Moreover, we have \(c(L_{3,1}) = 0\), \(sc(L_{3,1}) > 0\), \(c(L_{4,1}) > 0\) and \(sc(L_{4,1}) = 0\).