Bordered Floer homology and incompressible surfaces (Q2326253)

In [Ann. Math. (2) 159, No. 3, 1027--1158 (2004; Zbl 1073.57009)], \textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó} introduced a new family of 3-manifold invariants, called Heegaard Floer homology, which are isomorphic to Seiberg-Witten Floer homology. They have led to remarkable new theorems in 3-manifold topology allowing for Heegaard Floer homology to detect the Thurston norm on the homology of 3-manifolds and whether 3-manifolds fiber over the circle with fiber in a given homology class. If \(Y\) is a closed 3-manifold, \(\mathbb{K}\) is a field, and \(\Lambda\) is the universal Novikov field with coefficients in \(\mathbb{K}\), then any closed 2-form \(\omega\) induces a map \(\psi_\omega\) from the group ring \(\mathbb{K}[H_2(Y)]\) to \(\Lambda\) and gives the Novikov field \(\Lambda\) the structure \(\Lambda_\omega\) of a \(\mathbb{K}[H_2(Y)]\)-module. The Heegaard Floer homology \(\underline{\widehat{HF}}(Y;\Lambda_\omega)\) with coefficients in \(\Lambda_\omega\) depends only on the cohomology class of \(\omega\). For a closed surface \(\Sigma\) in a 3-manifold \(Y\), a closed disk \(D\) embedded in \(Y\) is called a compressing disk if \(\partial D=D\cap\Sigma\) is an essential curve in \(\Sigma\). A compressing disk \(D\) is said to be homologically essential if \(0\ne [\partial D]\in H_1(\Sigma)\), and if no homologically essential compressing disk exists then it is said that \(\partial Y\) is essentially incompressible. A properly embedded 1-manifold-with-boundary \(T\) in a compact, oriented 3-manifold \(Y\) with connected boundary, is called a tangle \((Y,T)\). For a tangle \((Y,T)\), an interval component \(T_0\) of \(T\) is called boundary parallel, if it is isotopic, in \(Y\backslash(T\backslash T_0)\), to an arc in \(\partial Y\). The pair \((Y,T)\) is called partly boundary parallel if it has an interval component which is boundary parallel, and \((Y,T)\) is called boundary parallel if \(T\) has no closed component and all of its components are boundary parallel. A sutured manifold is an oriented 3-manifold-with-boundary \(Y\) along with a set \(\Gamma\) of pairwise disjoint circles in \(\partial Y\), called sutures, which divide \(\partial Y\) into positive and negative regions \(R_+(\Gamma)\) and \(R_-(\Gamma)\) such that \(\partial R_+(\Gamma)=\partial R_-(\Gamma)=\Gamma\). In bordered Floer homology, a surface is represented by a pointed matched circle \(\mathcal{Z}=(Z,\mathbf{a},M,z)\), where \(Z\) is an oriented circle, \(\mathbf{a}\) is \(4k\) points in \(Z\), \(M\) is a pairing of points in \(\mathbf{a}\), and \(z\in Z\backslash\mathbf{a}\). There is a requirement that attaching 1-handles to \([0,1]\times Z\) along \(\{0\}\times\mathbf{a}\), according to the matching \(M\), gives a surface of genus \(k\) with two boundary components. The result of filling in these two boundary components with disks is denoted \(F(\mathcal{Z})\). In this paper, the authors develop more geometric properties detected by Heegaard Floer homology. They show that bordered Heegaard Floer homology detects homologically essential compressing disks, and that bordered-sutured Floer homology detects partly boundary-parallel tangles and bridges, in natural ways. In [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 13, No. 2, 1143--1159 (2013; Zbl 1352.57022)], \textit{Y. Ni} proved a non-vanishing theorem for Heegaard Floer homology twisted by a closed 2-form \(\omega\) by showing that if \(Y\) is a closed, irreducible 3-manifold and \(F\) is a closed surface in \(Y\) such that \(F\) is Thurston-norm minimizing and no subsurface of \(F\) is nullhomologous, then there exists a nonempty open set \(U\subset H_1(Y;\mathbb{R})\) so that \(\underline{HF}^+\left(Y,\frac12x(F);\Lambda_\omega\right)\ne 0\) and \(\underline{\widehat{HF}}\left(Y,\frac12x(F);\Lambda_\omega\right)\ne 0\) for any \(\omega\in U\), where \(x([F])\) is the Thurston norm of the homology class of \(F\) and \(\frac12x(F)\) is a certain set of \(\mathrm{spin}^c\)-structures. The present authors strengthen Ni's result and prove that if \(Y\) is a closed, oriented 3-manifold and \(\omega\in\Omega^2(Y)\) is a closed 2-form, then \(\underline{\widehat{HF}}(Y;\Lambda_\omega)=0\) if and only if \(Y\) contains a 2-sphere \(S\) so that \(\int_S\omega\ne 0\). By contrast, in the untwisted case, the authors show that \(\underline{\widehat{HF}}(Y;\Lambda_\omega)\ne0\) for any closed, oriented 3-manifold \(Y\). Finally, the authors show that bordered Floer homology detects whether \(\partial Y\) is essentially incompressible by proving that if for any pointed matched circle \(\mathcal{Z}\) representing a surface of genus \(k\), there is a type \(DA\) bimodule \({}^{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\boldsymbol{\Lambda}(\mathcal{Z})_{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\) such that \(\partial Y\) is a surface of genus \(k\) with any parametrization \(\varphi:F(-\mathcal{Z})\to\partial Y\), then \[ H_*\mathrm{Mor}_{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\left({}^{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\widehat{CFD}(Y,\varphi),{}^{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\boldsymbol{\Lambda}(\mathcal{Z})_{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\boxtimes{}^{\mathcal{A(Z)}}\widehat{CFD}(Y,\varphi)\right)=0 \] if and only if \(\partial Y\) has a homologically essential compressing disk, that is, \(\partial Y\) has a homologically essential compressing disk if and only if \(\widehat{CFD}(Y)\) and \(\boldsymbol{\Lambda}(\mathcal{Z})\boxtimes\widehat{CFD}(Y)\) are Hom-orthogonal.