Taut sutured manifolds and twisted homology (Q395053)

The authors give a necessary and sufficient criterion for a sutured manifold \((M,\gamma)\) to be taut in terms of the twisted homology of the pair \((M,R_-)\). A sutured manifold \((M,\gamma)\) is a compact, connected, oriented 3-manifold \(M\) together with a set of disjoint annuli \(\gamma\) on \(\partial M\), which turn \(M\) naturally into a cobordism between oriented surfaces \(R_-=R_-(\gamma)\) and \(R_+=R_+(\gamma)\) with boundary. This notion was introduced by \textit{D. Gabai} [J. Differ. Geom. 18, 445--503 (1983; Zbl 0533.57013)]. We say that a sutured manifold \((M,\gamma)\) is balanced if \(\chi(R_+)=\chi(R_-)\), where \(\chi\) denotes the Euler characteristic. From the authors' introduction: ``Given a surface \(S\) with connected components \(S_1\cup\cdots\cup S_\ell\) we define its complexity to be \(\displaystyle{\chi_-(S)=\sum_{i=1}^{\ell}\max\{-\chi(S_i),0\}}\). Following Gabai [loc. cit.]we say that a balanced sutured manifold \((M,\gamma)\) is taut if \(M\) is irreducible and if \(R_-\) and \(R_+\) have minimal complexity among all surfaces representing the homology class \([R_-]=[R_+]\in H_2(M,\gamma;\mathbb Z)\). Given a representation \(\alpha : \pi_1(M)\to \text{GL}(k,\mathbb F)\) over a field \(\mathbb F\) we can consider the twisted homology groups \(H^{\alpha}_*(M,R_-;\mathbb F^k)\). In this paper we give a necessary and sufficient criterion for a balanced sutured manifold \((M, \gamma)\) to be taut in terms of the twisted homology of the pair \((M,R_-)\). More precisely we wil prove the following theorem: \noindent Theorem 1.1. Let \((M,\gamma)\) be an irreducible balanced sutured manifold with \(M\neq S^1\times D^2\) and \(M\neq D^3\). Then \((M,\gamma)\) is taut if and only if \(H^{\alpha}_1(M,R_-;\mathbb C^k)=0\) for some unitary representation \(\alpha:\pi_1(M)\to U(k)\).'' This theorem is obtained from the following two theorems. The ``if'' direction can be proved using classical methods. It is obtained from the next theorem (Corollary 3.2). \noindent Theorem. Let \((M,\gamma)\) be an irreducible balanced sutured manifold and let \(\mathbb F\) be a field with involution. Assume there exists a unitary representation \(\alpha : \pi_1(M)\to \text{GL}(k,\mathbb F)\) (i.e., a representation such that \(\alpha(g^{-1})=\overline{\alpha(g)}^t\) for all \(g\in \pi_1(M)\)) such that \(H_1(M,R_-;\mathbb F^k)=0\). Then \((M,\gamma)\) is taut. The following theorem (Theorem 4.1) is a slight strengthening of the ``only if '' part of Theorem 1.1. \noindent Theorem. Let \((M,\gamma)\) be a taut sutured manifold with \(M\neq S^1\times D^2\) and \(M\neq D^3\). Then there exists a unitary representation \(\alpha:\pi_1(M)\to U(k)\), which factors through a finite group such that \(H_*(M,R_-;\mathbb C^k)=H_*(M,R_+;\mathbb C^k)=0\). In order to prove this theorem, the authors use the recent works of \textit{I. Agol} [J. Topol. 1, No. 2, 269--284 (2008; Zbl 1148.57023)], Liu and Przytycki-Wise and Wise.