On Mapping Class Groups of Contractible Open 3-Manifolds (Q4038460)

The main application of the methods of the paper is the computation of the mapping class group (diffeomorphisms modulo isotopy) of the classical Whitehead manifold; for example, the only finite subgroups are \(\mathbb{Z}_ 2\), but uncountably many all represented by involutions. More generally, a Whitehead manifold \(W\) is an irreducible contractible open 3-manifold. It is called eventually end-irreducible if there exists an increasing sequence \(V=\{V_ n\}\) of compact 3-manifolds with union \(W\) (an exhaustion for \(W\)) such that the boundary \(\partial V_ n\) is incompressible in \(W-V_ 0\), for all \(n>0\). Given an exhaustion \(V\), let \({\mathcal H}(W,V)\) be the subgroup of the mapping class group of \(W\) represented by diffeomorphisms which are ``eventually carried by \(V\)'', i.e. preserve the exhaustion up to finite shifts. If \(W\) has genus one, i.e. for some exhaustion \(V\) all \(\partial V_ n\) have genus one, then \(V\) can be chosen such that \({\mathcal H}(W,V)\) is equal to the whole mapping class group. The main result of the paper is a computation of \({\mathcal H}(W,V)\) for an eventually end-irreducible Whitehead manifold \(W\), in terms of the mapping class groups of certain compact submanifolds associated to the exhaustion. On the theoretical side, it is shown that diffeomorphisms which eventually preserve the exhaustion and are isotopic by isotopies which eventually preserve the exhaustion (but usually at a later level). Then the paper proceeds giving a method for the practical computation of the groups \({\mathcal H}(W,V)\) which is applied in 2 examples, one of genus 1 (the classical Whitehead manifold) and another one of genus 2; in both examples \({\mathcal H}(W,V)\) coincides with the whole mapping class group. It is also shown that for the Whitehead example (and every other ``periodic'' genus 1 Whitehead manifold), the mapping class group contains subgroups isomorphic to the fundamental group of every torus bundle over the circle. However it is known by results of the author in case of the classical, and recently by Wright for every eventually end- irreducible Whitehead manifold, that these manifolds do not admit fixed point free properly discontinuous group actions and thus cannot cover other 3-manifolds (in particular excluding these Whitehead manifolds as universal coverings of irreducible closed 3-manifolds which are conjectured to have universal covering \(\mathbb{R}^ 3\); obviously there remains the question whether all Whitehead manifolds are eventually end- irreducible). The paper is well written with clear expositions, in spite of the sometimes necessarily technical nature of the constructions and proofs.