Self-replicating 3-manifolds (Q2165558)

A (compact, orientable) \(3\)-manifold is \textit{self-replicating} if it contains a surface that cuts \(M\) into two components, each homeomorphic to \(M\). Such a manifold may be modeled by an idempotent in the \((2+1)\)-cobordism category \(\mathcal{C}\). The objects of \(\mathcal{C}\) are compact, orientable surfaces. A morphism \(M\) from \(F_1\) to \(F_2\) is a compact, orientable \(3\)-manifold such that \(F_1\cup F_2\) naturally embeds in \(\partial M\) (so that \(\partial M\) consists of \(F_1\), \(F_2\) and annuli). A morphism \(M\) \textit{splits} if there are morphisms \(P\) and \(Q\) such that \(M=P\circ Q\) and \(Q\circ P\) is an identity morphism. Such a morphism is an idempotent of \(\mathcal{C}\), i.e. \(M=M\circ M\). The author proves sort of a converse: If \(M\) is an idempotent from \(G\) to \(G\), where \(M\) and \(G\) are connected, then \(M\) splits. It is also shown that such an idempotent embeds in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). If the image of \(M\) in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) can be cut along the decomposing surface \(G\) corresponding to \(M=M\circ M\) into manifolds \(M_1\), \(M_2\) that can be separated by a \(2\)-sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), then the embedding is called \textit{effective}. The final result is that if \(G\) is connected and \(M\) is a connected idempotent from \(G\) to \(G\), then \(M\) embeds effectively into \(\mathbb{R}^3\) if and only if \(M\) is an identity morphism and \(G\) is planar.