Branched surfaces and Markov minimal sets in foliations of 3-manifolds (Q2291588)

The author considers a transversely orientable foliation \(F\) of codimension 1 on a closed orientable 3-manifold \(M\). After fixing a transverse flow \(\phi\), a finite generating set \(\Delta\) of \(F\) consists of pairwise disjoint compact surfaces embedded in the leaves, whose boundaries are non-empty with finitely many components, and satisfy certain conditions with respect to \(\phi\). Then \(M\) is cut open along the interior of each element of \(\Delta\) to obtain a compact submanifold with boundary, \(M^*\subset M\), as blowing air into the leaves of \(F\) to create air pockets at the elements of \(\Delta\). The flow \(\phi\) defines a partition of \(M^*\) into compact intervals, and the quotient space is a branched surface \(W\), which is said to be carrying \(F\). The author also considers a graph \(\lambda\) in \(W\), introduced by \textit{T. Li} [Geom. Topol. 6, 153--194 (2002; Zbl 1067.57011)], where the edges are tangent to one another at some vertices, like in train tracks, and the edges cut transversely at other vertices. Then she performs certain changes of \(W\) and \(\lambda\), called \(F\)-changes, trying to find subgraphs of a certain type, called merging clusters. On the other hand, a minimal set \(E\) of \(F\) is a non-empty closed \(F\)-saturated subset, which is minimal with these properties. If \(E\) is neither a compact leaf nor the whole of \(M\), then it is called exceptional. A class of exceptional minimal sets is given by the Markov minimal sets, whose structure can be modeled by quotients of subshifts of finite type. The main theorem of the paper states that, if \(F\) contains a Markov minimal set, then the Li graph \(\lambda\) of any branched surface \(W\) carrying \(F\) can be \(F\)-modified finitely many times to produce a merging cluster. The converse of this theorem is also proved with some additional condition. In this way, the author also achieves certain stability of the existence of Markov minimal sets under \(C^1\) deformations of \(F\).