On the diffeomorphism group of a reducible 3-manifold (Q578655)

Let M be an orientable 3-manifold and let Diff(M rel \(\partial M)\) be the group of diffeomorphisms of M which restrict to the identity map on \(\partial M\). If M is irreducible and sufficiently large it was shown by F. Laudenbach and A. Hatcher that \(\pi_ 1(Diff(M rel \partial M))\hookrightarrow Center(\pi_ 1(M))\) and that each component of Diff(M rel \(\partial M)\) is aspherical. (These results were originally proved in the PL category but A. Hatcher's subsequent proof of the Smale conjecture allows their extension to DIFF.) In contrast it is known that the diffeomorphism group of a reducible 3-manifold does not have aspherical components and has complicated behaviour in its homotopy groups. For example, the second author has shown that if M is the connected sum of at least three closed aspherical manifolds then \(\pi_ 1(Diff(M))\) is not even finitely generated. When M is reducible the problem of describing Diff(M rel \(\partial M)\) thus becomes one of equating its homotopy type with that of a simpler space. Such a simplification was first achieved by A. Hatcher for \(M=S^ 1\times S^ 2\), and then by F. Laudenbach and the first author in the general case. To describe their result let's restrict to the case where M is the connected sum of irreducible manifolds \(P_ 1,...\), \(P_ n\) and let D and \(D_ i\) be 3-balls in M and \(P_ i\), respectively. Then the Hendriks-Laudenbach theorem states that Diff(M rel \(\partial M\cup D)\) is homotopy equivalent to \(\prod Diff(P_ i rel \partial P_ i\cup D_ i)\times \Omega C_ 1\) where \(\Omega C_ 1\) is the loop space over a certain configuration space of connected sum decompositions of M. The article under review forms an important addendum to this work. Let B be an n-punctured 3-sphere in M which contains D and separates off \(P_ 1,...\), \(P_ n\) and let \(Imb_ e(B\), M rel D) be the space of imbeddings of B in M which are the identity on D and which extend to diffeomorphisms of M. It is shown that Diff(M rel \(\partial M\cup D)\) is an actual topological product \[ \prod Diff(P_ i rel \partial P_ i\cup D_ i)\times Imb_ e(B,\quad M rel D) \] and that \(Imb_ e(B\), M Rel D) has the homotopy type of \(\Omega C_ 1\). This description is used to prove that the inclusion into Diff(M rel \(\partial M\cup D)\) of the subgroup of diffeomorphisms which carry B to itself induces injective homomorphisms on homotopy groups, provided that none of the summands is a fake sphere. The above theorems are derived when M has handles \((S^ 1\times S^ 2\) summands) as well as irreducible summands - we have restricted the discussion to the irreducible summands case only to simplify the statements.