Generalized handlebody sets and non-Haken 3-manifolds (Q953067)

For a connected closed orientable surface \(\Sigma\), the curve complex is the simplicial complex whose vertices are isotopy classes of essential simple closed curves in \(\Sigma\) and whose simplices correspond to sets of pairwise disjoint loops in \(\Sigma\). Fix a homeomorphism between \(\Sigma\) and the boundary of a handlebody \(H\). Then the handlebody set \(\mathbf{H}\) is the set of loops that bound properly embedded essential disks in \(H\). Similarly, the genus \(g\) boundary set \(\mathbf{H}^g\) is the set of nonseparating loops such that each bounds a properly embedded two-sided incompressible genus \(g\) surface in \(H\). Define the boundary set \(\mathbf{H}^\infty\) to be the union of all \(\mathbf{H}^g\) for \(g\geq 0\). This is regarded as a subset of the vertex set of the curve complex. The main result claims that if the surface \(\Sigma\) has genus at least three, then the boundary set \(\mathbf{H}^\infty\) is \(2\)-dense in the curve complex. This means that every vertex of the curve complex is within two edges from a vertex of \(\mathbf{H}^\infty\). The proof does not work for genus two surfaces, but it is known that the boundary set is at most \(5\)-dense in this case. There is an application for Heegaard splittings of closed \(3\)-manifolds. For a closed orientable \(3\)-manifold and a Heegaard splitting \((\Sigma,H_1,H_2)\), the distance of the Heegaard splitting is defined as \(d(\mathbf{H}_1,\mathbf{H}_2)\), where \(\mathbf{H}_i\) is the handlebody set derived from \(H_i\) and the inclusion map from \(\Sigma\). This is the same as one by \textit{J. Hempel} [Topology 40, No.~3, 631--657 (2001; Zbl 0985.57014)]. Naturally, it generalizes to the boundary distance \(d(\mathbf{H}_1^\infty,\mathbf{H}_2^\infty)\). Boundary distance zero easily implies that the \(3\)-manifold contains a nonseparating two-sided incompressible surface. The main result also implies that the boundary distance of any Heegaard splitting with genus at least three is equal to either zero, one or two. Thus for any Heegaard splitting with genus at least three of a non-Haken \(3\)-manifold, the boundary distance is equal to one or two.