A function on the homology of 3-manifolds (Q2464746)

This paper contains a beautiful construction of the analogue of Thurston's norm for the homology with torsion. Namely, given an arbitrary oriented 3-manifold \(M\), the author defines a function on \(H_2(M; \mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\) that takes values on the non negative real numbers. Given an homology class \(x\) in \(H_2(M;\mathbb Q/\mathbb Z)\), \(x\) is realized by a simple folded surface \(X\) of some index \(i\), meaning that the singular locus of \(X\) is a union of disjoint circles, and \(n\) local components of the smooth part of \(X\) meet at each point of the singular locus. The function on the cohomology class \(x\) is defined as the infimum of the negative part of the Euler characteristic of all \(X\) realizing \(x\), divided by the index. Via the boundary map, it induces a function of the torsion part of the first homology with integer coefficients. The paper studies some properties of this function. In particular it obtains some upper and lower bounds depending on the Thurston norm and abelian torsions. Nice examples are provided. The paper ends with some open questions.