Homology cylinders of higher-order (Q441092)

Let \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) be an oriented compact surface of genus \(g\) with \(n\) boundary components, for \(g\) and \(n\) non-negative integers. Homology cylinders were first introduced by \textit{M. Goussarov} in [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I, Math. 329, No. 6, 517--522 (1999; Zbl 0938.57013)] and \textit{K. Habiro} in [Geom.\ Topol.\ 4, 1--83 (2000; Zbl 0941.57015)]. Roughly speaking, they are homology cobordisms from \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) to itself. The set \(\mathcal{C}_{g,n}\) of isomorphism classes of homology cylinders over \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) has a monoid structure. Let \(\Gamma_m:=\pi_1\Sigma_{g,n}/(\pi_1\Sigma_{g,n})^{(m+1)}\) for each \(m\geq 0\), where \((\pi_1\Sigma_{g,n})^{(m)}\) is the derived series of \(\pi_1\Sigma_{g,n}\). In this paper, the author introduces homology cylinders of order \(m\) over \(\Sigma_{g,n}\), which are ``homology cylinders over \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) satisfying that the marking embeddings from \(\Sigma_{g,n}\) to the boundary of the underlying manifold \(M\) induce isomorphisms \(\Gamma_m\to \pi_1M/(\pi_1M)^{(m+1)}\)''. Denoting by \(\mathcal{C}_{g,n}^{(m)}\) the submonoid of \(\mathcal{C}_{g,n}\) consisting of isomorphism classes of homology cylinders of order \(m\), one obtains a filtration of \(\mathcal{C}_{g,n}\). The author defines in a similar way a smooth homology cobordism group, and he denotes it by \(\mathcal{H}_{g,n}^{(m)}\). Further, he constructs Reidemeister torsion homomorphisms of \(\mathcal{C}_{g,n}^{(m)}\) and \(\mathcal{H}_{g,n}^{(m)}\). Finally, he shows how to construct homology cylinders of order \(m\) from knots in \(S^3\) by using surgery.