Handlebody splittings of compact 3-manifolds with boundary (Q2472512)

It is well known that a closed connected orientable \(3\)-manifold \(M\) admits a Heegaard splitting. The minimal genus of Heegaard splittings for \(M\) is called the Heegaard genus of \(M\), which is denoted by \(\mathrm{Hg}(M)\). A compact connected orientable \(3\)-manifold with non-empty boundary is referred to as a bordered \(3\)-manifold. \textit{J. S. Downing} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 24, 241-244 (1970; Zbl 0189.54704)] proved that any bordered \(3\)-manifold can be decomposed into two homeomorphic handlebodies, and \textit{Lloyd G. Roeling} [Ill. J. Math. 17, 558-562 (1973; Zbl 0284.57004)] studied such decompositions for bordered \(3\)-manifolds with connected boundary. The purpose of the paper under review is to report Downing's and Roeling's results in generalized forms. More precisely, let \(M\) be a bordered \(3\)-manifold with \(\partial M=B_1\cup B_2\cup\dots\cup B_m\). Then \(M\) admits a Downing splitting \((M;H_1,H_2;F_0)\), where \(H_1\) and \(H_2\) are handlebodies of the same genus, \(M=H_1\cup H_2\), \(H_1\cap H_2=\partial H_1\cap \partial H_2=F_0\) is connected, \(H_j\cap B_i=\partial H_j\cap B_i=K_{ji}\) is a disk with holes and \(K_{1i}\cong K_{2i}\) for \(j=1,2\) and \(i=1,2,\dots,m\), and each \(\pi_1 K_{ji}\) injects into \(\pi_1 H_j\). The minimal genus for such splittings for \(M\) is the Downing genus \(\mathrm{Dg}(M)\). Moreover, as a certain specialization of a Downing splitting, a special Downing splitting is introduced, and the special Downing genus \(\mathrm{SDg}(M)\) is defined similarly. Roeling showed that if \(M\) admits a special Downing splitting of genus \(g\), then it admits a Heegaard splitting of genus \(g\), and that if \(M\) admits a Heegaard splitting of genus \(g\), then it admits a Downing splitting of genus \(g\), when \(M\) has connected boundary. This is generalized to the case where \(M\) has disconnected boundary, so \(\mathrm{Dg}(M)\leq \mathrm{Hg}(M)\leq \mathrm{SDg}(M)\). The Reidemeister-Singer theorem claims that any two Heegaard splittings are stably equivalent. An analogous result is proved for Downing splittings. The last part of the paper discusses Haken type theorems for special Downing splittings. One of them is as follows. Let \((M;H_1,H_2;F_0)\) be a special Downing splitting for a bordered \(3\)-manifold \(M\). If \(M\) admits an essential sphere, then there exists an essential sphere \(S\) such that \(S\cap F_0\) consists of a single circle. As a corollary to this, the additivity of special Downing genus holds.