Quantum invariants can provide sharp Heegaard genus bounds (Q645094)

It is well-known that the Heegaard genus \(g(M)\) of a 3-manifold \(M\) (i.e. the smallest integer so that \(M\) has a Heegaard splitting of that genus) is generally very difficult to compute. The present paper investigates the effectiveness of a lower bound on \(g(M)\) deriving from the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants (see [\textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 121, No.~3, 351--399 (1989; Zbl 0667.57005)] for a basic reference about the invariants, and [\textit{S. Garoufalidis}, Topology 37, No.~1, 219--224 (1998; Zbl 0892.57005)] and [\textit{V. G. Turaev}, Quantum invariants of knots and 3-manifolds,.de Gruyter Studies in Mathematics 18, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1994; Zbl 0812.57003)] for the quoted bound). Until advent of the quantum invariants, the best known lower bound on \(g(M)\) was the rank of the fundamental group of \(M\), \(r (\pi_1 M)\). In [Invent. Math. 76, 455--468 (1984; Zbl 0538.57004)], \textit{M. Boileau} and \textit{H. Zieschan}g presented a particular set of Seifert fibered spaces \(M\), with the relatively rare property that \(g(M)=3\), while \(r (\pi_1 M)=2\). By studying the examples of Boileau and Zieschang, the author proves that quantum invariants may be used to provide a lower bound on \(g(M)\) which is both simpler to calculate and strictly larger than \(r (\pi_1 M)\).