Toroidal handle additions and thrice punctured essential torus (Q6178327)

\(2\)-handle additions are an important topic in \(3\)-manifold topology and play an important role in the study of \(3\)-manifolds. \(2\)-handle additions can be viewed as a generalization of Dehn surgery. \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{Y.-Q. Wu} [J. Aust. Math. Soc., Ser. A 55, No. 1, 72--89 (1993; Zbl 0802.57005)] proved that if \(M[\alpha]\) is reducible and \(M[\beta]\) is \(\partial\)-reducible, then \(\Delta (\alpha, \beta)=0\). Also, they proposed a conjecture. Note that Scharlemann-Wu's conjecture is still open. In the paper under review, the author shows that if both \(2\)-handle additions \(M[\alpha]\) and \(M[\beta]\) are toroidal and one of them contains an essential torus whose intersection with \(M\) is a thrice punctured essential torus, then \(\Delta (\alpha, \beta)\leq 8\).