2-symmetric transformations for 3-manifolds of genus 2

DOI10.1006/JCTB.2000.1951MaRDI QIDQ1850472zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Luigi Grasselli, Michele Mulazzani, Roman Nedela

Publication date 10 December 2002

Published in Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0003081

3-manifold Heegaard genus 2 homeomorphism problem

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10) Relations of low-dimensional topology with graph theory (57M15) Triangulating manifolds (57Q15)

Abstract: As previously known, all 3-manifolds of genus two can be represented by edge-coloured graphs uniquely defined by 6-tuples of integers satisfying simple conditions. The present paper describes an ``elementary transformation on these 6-tuples which changes the associated graph but does not change the represented manifold. This operation is a useful tool in the classification problem for 3-manifolds of genus two; in fact, it allows to define an equivalence relation on ``admissible 6-tuples so that equivalent 6-tuples represent the same manifold. Different equivalence classes can represent the same manifold; however, equivalence classes ``almost always contain infinitely many 6-tuples. Finally, minimal representatives of the equivalence classes are described.

Review text

The \textit{Heegaard genus} \(g(M)\) of a closed \(3\)-manifold \(M\) is the minimal integer~\(g\geq 0\) such that \(M\)~admits a decomposition into two handlebodies bounding a surface of genus~\(g\) (a \textit{Heegaard splitting}). It is well known that the only \(3\)-manifold of Heegaard genus~\(0\) is the \(3\)-sphere, and that the \(3\)-manifolds of genus~\(1\) are \(S^1\times S^2\), \(S^1\tilde\times S^2\), and the lens spaces. In contrast, the classification problem for \(3\)-manifolds of genus \(g(M)\geq 2\) is still unsolved. However, partial progress has been made for~\(g(M)=2\): any genus~\(2\) manifold~\(M\) can be represented (in a non-unique way) by a highly symmetric colored (multi)graph, and two such manifolds turn out to be homeomorphic if and only if there is a finite sequence of \textit{dipole moves} relating each pair of colored graphs representing them. Moreover, each colored graph associated to~\(M\) can be uniquely characterized by a \(6\)-tuple of integers. The homeomorphism problem for \(3\)-manifolds of genus~\(2\) thus translates into determining when two \(6\)-tuples determine the same manifold. Additionally, \(g(M)\)~can be recovered from the colored graphs associated to~\(M\), in the sense that \(g(M)\)~is the minimal genus~\(g(C)\) of a surface into which a colored graph~\(C\) associated to~\(M\) can be regularly embedded. Unfortunately, a single dipole move can change~\(g(C)\), and hence cannot be used for defining an equivalence relation on the set of \(6\)-tuples representing colored graphs that would reflect the homeomorphism of the corresponding \(3\)-manifolds. In the present paper, the authors describe composite sequences of dipole moves that change the colored graph, but leave its genus and the manifold it represents invariant. Different equivalence classes of colored graphs under such composite sequences may still represent the same \(3\)-manifold, but the authors show that these equivalence classes ``almost always contain infinitely many elements, and characterize when this happens. Furthermore, they give criteria for a \(6\)-tuple associated to a colored graph to be minimal with respect to a suitable complexity measure. The authors further suggest that their findings may be useful in a computer enumeration of \(3\)-manifolds of genus~\(2\), but do not report on the results of such an enumeration.

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