Pre-taut sutured manifolds and essential laminations (Q5956134)

The authors introduce the notion of a pre-taut sutured manifold. A pre-taught sutured manifold is obtained from a taut sutured manifold by attaching a pair of 1-handles. Sutured manifolds were introduced in [\textit{D. Gabai}, J. Differ. Geom. 18, 445-503 (1983; Zbl 0533.57013)], and are closely related to essential laminations. This circle of ideas has been utilized by a number of authors to obtain strong results about the topology of 3-manifolds (see [\textit{M. Brittenham}, J. Knot Theory Ramifications 8, 415-428 (1999; Zbl 0941.57013); \textit{C. Delman} and \textit{R. Roberts}, Comment. Math. Helv. 74, 367-397 (1999; Zbl 0949.57002); \textit{D. Gabai} and \textit{V. Oertel}, Ann. Math., II. Ser. 130, 41-73 (1989; Zbl 0685.57007), \textit{W. P. Thurston}, Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 339, 99-130 (1986; Zbl 0585.57006)] and the references therein). The main result of this paper is a theorem giving necessary and sufficient conditions on a knot in a pre-taut sutured manifold so that any nontrivial surgery on the knot will be a taut sutured manifold. This paper ends with a few nice examples, and the paper begins with an introduction placing the present proposition in proper perspective.