A new approach to crushing 3-manifold triangulations (Q742827)

The \textit{crushing procedure} by \textit{W. Jaco} and \textit{J. H. Rubinstein} [J. Differ. Geom. 65, No. 1, 61--168 (2003; Zbl 1068.57023)] is a key component in many practical algorithms in computational 3-manifold topology: it eliminates ``unwanted'' normal spheres and discs, in order to obtain a \textit{0-efficient} triangulation. Here, the author gives a new treatment that reduces the crushing process to a sequential combination of three ``atomic'' operations on a cell decomposition, all of which are simple to analyse. \noindent In particular, the aims of the present paper are: \noindent (i) \ to make the crushing operation more accessible to the wider computational topology community; \noindent (ii) \ to simplify its analysis so that the techniques are easier to use and generalize; \noindent (iii) to apply this simplified analysis to the non-orientable setting, yielding a new practical and robust algorithm for non-orientable prime decomposition. Crushing techniques are also applied to the study of non-orientable minimal triangulations (where minimality is related to the number of involved tetrahedra: see for example [\textit{S. Matveev}, Algorithmic topology and classification of 3-manifolds. Algorithms and Computation in Mathematics 9. Berlin: Springer (2003; Zbl 1048.57001)]).