Decomposing perfect discrete Morse functions on connected sum of 3-manifolds (Q2415953)

A perfect Morse function is a function where the number of critical points equals the sum of the Betti numbers. The authors study perfect discrete Morse functions on closed, connected and oriented 3-manifolds \(M\). They show that an abstract decomposition as a connected sum \(M= M_1\# M_2\) induces a decomposition into two perfect discrete Morse functions on \(M_1\) and \(M_2\), respectively. The authors give an explicit construction of a separating sphere between the two parts. They assume that the given function is perfect with respect to the \(\mathbb{Z}\)-Betti numbers. This is fairly restrictive. On the other hand, they remark without further details: ``Our methods extend to perfect discrete Morse functions over other coefficients which are supported by other classes of manifolds.'' Finally, the authors remark that an extension to dimension 4 or higher is not directly possible.