The simplicial volume of mapping tori of 3-manifolds (Q2308334)

For a topological space $X$ and a homology class $\alpha \in H_{n}(X;\mathbb{R}),$ Gromov introduced the $\ell^1$-semi-norm of $\alpha$ to be \[ \|\alpha\|_1:=\inf \left \{\sum_j |\lambda_j|:\sum_j \lambda_j \sigma_j \in C_{n}(X;\mathbb{R})\text{ is a singular cycle representing }\alpha \right \} . \] If $M$ is a closed oriented $n$-dimensional manifold, then the simplicial volume of $M$ is given by $\|M\|$ $:=\|[M]\|_{1},$ where $[M]$ denotes the fundamental class of $M$. The main result of the paper is Theorem 1.2 which states that the simplicial volume of every mapping torus of a closed $3$-manifold is zero. From this theorem the authors derive interesting corollaries. More precisely, in Corollary 1.3 a closed $4$-manifold $M$ is considered which is a fiber bundle with fiber $F$ and base $B$. It is proven that, if $\dim (F)=\dim (B)=2$ and the surfaces $F$ and $B$ support a hyperbolic structure, then $\|M\|>0;$ otherwise $\|M\|=0$. In Corollary 1.4 it is proven that the simplicial volume of every mapping torus vanishes only in dimensions two and four. Finally, in Corollary 1.5 it is proven that the fundamental group $G$ of a mapping torus of a $3$-manifold $M$ is hyperbolic if and only if $M$ is virtually a connected sum $\#S^{2}\times S^{1}$ and $G$ does not contain $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$. Furthermore, using Theorem 1.2 all possible self-homeomorphisms of reducible $3$-manifolds are analysed and an explicit representative of the fundamental class of the corresponding mapping tori is obtained.