Incompressibility and normal minimal surfaces (Q735047)

A normal surface \(F\) is a surface inside a triangulated 3-manifold \(M\) that intersects each tetrahedron so that each component of intersection is a triangle or a quadrangle. To point out a given triangulation \(\tau\) of \(M\) one says that \(F\) is a \(\tau\)-normal surface in \(M\). Can we preserve ``normality'' of \(F\) if we subdivide (refine) \(\tau\)? Yes, if we perform starring of tetrahedra (3-simplexes). Note that such a subdivision of \(\tau\) does not change the 2-skeleton of \(\tau\), and this procedure of subdivision can be iterated. Even more, one can give a scaling function \(f:\{\Delta: \Delta \in \tau \} \to\mathbb{Z}\) on the set of tetrahedra and perform the procedure on tetrahedra of \(\tau\) according to \(f\). Denote by \(\tau'\) the obtained triangulation of \(M\). The main result says: Let \(F\) be a a closed surface and no component of \(F\) is a 2-sphere. Then for any scaling function \(f\) it holds: \(F\) is \(\tau\)-normal if and only if \(F\) is \(\tau'\)-normal. The results related to the mentioned procedure of subdivision (refining) are used further to characterize the incompressibility of closed orientable surfaces and the obtained theorem is the following: Let \(F\) be a closed orientable surface in an irreducible orientable closed 3-manifold \(M\). Then \(F\) is incompressible if and only if for every triangulation \(\tau\) of \(M\), \(F\) is isotopic to a \(\tau\)-normal surface \(F(\tau)\) that is of minimal \(PL\)-area.