Heegaard surfaces and the distance of amalgamation (Q991848)

Suppose \(M\) is a closed 3-manifold obtained by gluing two oriented irreducible 3-manifolds \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) by means of a homeomorphism along their boundaries. If the gluing homeomorphism is sufficiently complicated, then it is proved that \(M\) is not homeomorphic to the sphere \(S^3\), that all small genus Heegaard splittings of \(M\) are standard, and that the Heegaard genuses satisfy \[ g(M) = g(M_1) + g(M_2) - g(\partial M_i). \] The measure of the complexity of the gluing homeomorphism is the distance of the amalgamation, denoted \(d(M)\), which is introduced in this paper. When \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are handlebodies, \(d(M)\) is the same as the Hempel distance [\textit{J. Hempel}, Topology 40, No.~3, 631--657 (2001; Zbl 0985.57014)].