Width complexes for knots and 3-manifolds (Q953174)

In this paper, the author defines the `width complexes' for knots and 3-dimensional manifolds. Then, she considers basic cases and reformulates the stabilization problem for Heegaard splittings from this viewpoint. The idea of width complexes for knots is as follows: Let \(h\) be a fixed height function \(S^3\rightarrow \mathbb R\). We denote by \(K\) a knot in \(S^3\), and let \(k\) be a representative of \(K\). Let \(c_0, \ldots , c_n\) be the critical values of \(h| _k\). Choose regular values \(r_1,\ldots, r_n\) such that \(c_{i-1}<r_i<c_{i}\). We call \(R_i=h^{-1}(r_i)\) a thick level (resp. thin level) if \(c_{i-1}\) corresponds to a local minimum (resp. maximum) and \(c_i\) corresponds to a local maximum (resp. minimum). Denote the thick levels by \(C_0,\ldots , C_{\ell}\) and the thin levels by \(N_1,\ldots, N_{\ell}\). A representative \(k\) of \(K\) determines a set of level surfaces \(C_0,N_1,C_1,\ldots, N_{\ell},C_{\ell}\). We consider two representatives of \(K\) to be equivalent if their collections of thick and thin levels are isotopic. To each of the resulting equivalence classes, we associate a vertex. Next, we define the edges of the width complex of a knot. An upper (resp. lower) disk for \(k\) at level \(L_i\) is the following: A disk whose interior is disjoint from the thick and thin levels and whose boundary is partitioned into two subarcs, one coinciding with a subarc of \(K\) containing exactly one maximum (resp. minimum) and no other critical points and the other a subarc of \(L_i\). A strict upper (resp. lower) disk is an upper (resp. lower) disk whose interior contains no critical points. Suppose there is a pair of disks \((D,E)\) such that \(D\) is a strict upper disk and \(E\) is a strict lower disk for \(k\) at the thick level \(C_i\). Suppose further that this pair of disks is either disjoint, or meets in one point of \(k\). Then, the pair \((D,E)\) describes an isotopy that changes the embedding \(k\) to an embedding \(k'\) where \(k'\) is `thinner' than \(k\). We associate an edge to a pair of vertices if and only if a pair of representatives of the two equivalence classes corresponding to the vertices differ in this way. We now define higher dimensional cells of the width complex of a knot. Suppose that there are \(n\) pairs of strict upper and strict lower disks at the thick levels where in each pair the two disks are either disjoint or meet in one point such that distinct pairs are disjoint. Then these \(n\) pairs of disks describe \(n\) isotopies that can be performed in any order. This gives rise to \(\ell\) other representatives where \(\ell\leq 2^n-1\). We associate an \(\ell\)-simplex to any \(\ell\)-tuple of vertices corresponding to an \(\ell\)-tuple of equivalence classes of representatives that differ in this way. (We think of these cells as \(n\)-dimensional cubes.) With these definitions, the author shows the following theorems. Theorem 1. The width complex of a knot is connected. Theorem 2. The width complex of the unknot contains an infinite ray. Theorem 3. The width complex of a knot is not simply connected. Theorem 4. There exists a positive integer \(N\), such that there are infinitely many distinct presentations of the unknot of width \(N\). Theorem 5. The width complex of a knot is not locally finite. Furthermore, the author defines and discusses the width complexes for 3-manifolds using Cerf theory [\textit{J. Cerf}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 39, 5--173 (1970; Zbl 0213.25202)].