A construction of 3-manifolds whose homeomorphism classes of Heegaard splittings have polynomial growth (Q2367020)

A result of Johannson says that for a Haken 3-manifold \(M\), the number \(h_ M(g)\) of homeomorphism classes of Heegaard splittings of genus \(g\) of \(M\) is finite, for each \(g\). Casson and Gordon constructed infinitely many 3-manifolds such that \(h_ M(2n)\geq 2\), for all \(n\geq 3\), answering in the negative a question raised by Waldhausen. By the main result of the present paper, for each positive integer \(n\) there exist infinitely many Haken 3-manifolds admitting at least \({{k-1} \choose {n- 1}}\) mutually non-homeomorphic, strongly irreducible Heegaard splittings of genus \(4n+2+2k\), for each \(k\geq n\). As a consequence, for each positive integer \(m\) one has \(\limsup_{g\to\infty} h_ M(g)/g^ m=\infty\), for infinitely many 3-manifolds \(M\).