Finiteness of mapping degree sets for 3-manifolds (Q546322)

For closed oriented 3-dimensional manifolds \(M\) and \(N\) denote by \(\mathcal{D}(M,N)\) the set \(\{d\in\mathbb{Z}\mid\exists\;f:M\to N, \deg(f)=d\}\). The authors exploit the confirmation of Thurston's geometrization conjecture to solve the problem as to when \(\mathcal{D}(M,N)\) is finite. To be precise, the authors prove the following theorem: Let \(N\) be a closed oriented 3-manifold. Then there is a closed orientable 3-manifold \(M\) such that \(|\mathcal{D}(M,N)|=\infty\) if and only if \(|\mathcal{D}(R,R)|=\infty\) for each prime factor \(R\) of \(N\).