Generalized Mom-structures and ideal triangulations of 3-manifolds with nonspherical boundary (Q422095)

Mom-structures were introduced by \textit{D. Gabai, R. Meyerhoff} and \textit{P. Milley} in the context of cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds [Comment. Math. Helv. 86, No. 1, 145--188 (2011; Zbl 1207.57023)] and used as a tool to identify the smallest closed hyperbolic 3-manifold [J. Am. Math. Soc. 22, No. 4, 1157--1215 (2009; Zbl 1204.57013)]. Roughly, a Mom-structure is a triple formed of a 3-manifold \(M\) with toric boundary, a selected torus \(T\) in \(\partial M\) and a type of handle decomposition of \(M\) that includes a collar of \(T\) serving as the base for the subsequent gluings of 1- and 2-handles. In the present paper, the notion of Mom-structure is extended to include the case of 3-manifolds with arbitrary non-spherical, non-empty boundary. The relation of such ``protoMom-structures'' with ideal triangulations is studied from a combinatorial point of view, considering also the Epstein-Penner and Kojima-decomposition in the case of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The main result of the paper is then the determination of a set of combinatorial moves that relate any two (internal) protoMom-structures of a fixed 3-manifold.