Genus of a Cantor set (Q2566496)

A defining sequence for a Cantor set, \(X\), in 3-space, is a sequence of compact 3-manifolds, \((M_i)\) with boundary, each consisting of disjoint cubes with handles, \(M_{i+1}\subset\text{Int}\,M_i\) and \(X=\bigcap M_i\). If \(A\subset X\), \(g_A(X;(M_i))\) is the maximum genus of those components of the \(M_i\) which intersect \(A\). \(g_A(X)\) is the minimum of \(g_A(X;(M_i))\) over all defining sequences, \((M_i)\), for \(X\). If \(x\in X\), \(g_x(X)=g_{\{x\}}(X)\) is the local genus at \(x\), and \(g(X)= g_X(X)\) is the genus of \(X\). If \(x\) is in a Cantor set and for every \(\delta>0\) there is an \(\varepsilon>0\) such that every map of the circle into the \(\text{Int}\,B(x,\delta)\setminus X\) extends to a map from the disk into \(\text{Int}\,B(x,\varepsilon)\setminus X\), then \(g_x(X)=0\). In the next section, under some technical conditions, a lower bound is given for the local genus and, using an Alexander type construction, a Cantor set is constructed for any prescribed genus. It is known that if \(g_x(X)= 0\) for all \(x\in X\), then \(g(X)=0\). With an additional technical hypothesis on the diameter of 2-spheres which can split \(X\) (positive lower bound of splittability), it is shown that \(g_x(X)=1\) for all \(x\in X\), then \(g(X)=1\). Finally results are obtained on the genus of the union of two Cantor sets providing an alternate path to showing that a Cantor set exists for any given genus.