Minimal genus in circle bundles over 3-manifolds (Q2826644)

The Thurston norm on the second integral homology of a 3-manifold minimizes the complexity (basically the genus) of an embedded surface representing a given homology class. In exactly the same way, a complexity function can be defined on the second homology of a 4-manifold which, however, is much less understood. In the present paper, considering the case of 4-manifolds which are circle bundles over closed, irreducible 3-manifolds (not Seifert fibered and not covered by torus bundles), the complexity of a homology class is bounded from below by the sum of (the absolute value of) the self-intersection number of the class and the Thurston norm of its projection to the 3-manifold (with equality in many cases). This extends a result of \textit{S. Friedl} and \textit{S. Vidussi} [Adv. Math. 250, 570--587 (2014; Zbl 1297.57067)] to the case of graph-manifolds, removing also restrictions on the Euler class of the circle bundle. Along the way, computations of twisted Reidemeister torsion of graph manifolds are obtained; in particular it is proved that, if the first Betti number of a graph manifold is at least two, then it has a finite cover for which the torsion norm and the Thurston norm coincide.