On non-compact Heegaard splittings (Q2464766)

It is well known that every open 3-manifold \(M\) admits a Heegaard splitting, i.e. a partition of \(M\) into two non-compact handlebodies which intersect on their common boundary. The present paper takes into account two types of non compact 3-manifolds (the eventually end-irreducible ones and the deleted boundary ones) and makes use of the interplay between exaustions and Heegaard splittings in order to prove several non-compact analogues of theorems about compact Heegaard splittings. In particular, a non-compact analogue of a theorem by \textit{A. J. Casson} and \textit{C. McA. Gordon} on weakly reducible Heegaard splittings [Topology Appl. 27, 275--283 (1987; Zbl 0632.57010)] is obtained for eventually end-irreducible 3-manifolds: it is proved that their Heegaard splittings are formed by amalgamating Heegaard splittings of boundary-irreducible compact submanifolds. As a consequence, the author yields the classification of nearly every deleted boundary manifolds. This result is analogous to, and depends on, the classification of splittings of \((\text{closed surface}) \times I\) by \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{A. Thompson} [Math. Ann. 295, No. 3, 549--564 (1993; Zbl 0814.57010)]; moreover, it may also be viewed as a non-compact analogue of \textit{J. Schulten}'s classification of Heegaard splittings of \((\text{closed surface}) \times S^1\) [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 67, No.~2, 425--448 (1993; Zbl 0789.57012)].