All Questions
16 questions
49
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Thurston's 24 questions: All settled?
Thurston's 1982 article on three-dimensional manifolds1 ends with $24$ "open questions":
$\cdots$
Two naive questions from an outsider:
(1) Have all $24$ now been resolved?
(2)...
- 151k
17
votes
1
answer
525
views
Lowest Dimension for Counterexample in Topological Manifold Factorization
Bing gave a classical example of spaces $X, Y, Z$ such that $X \times Y = Z$, where $X$ and $Z$ are manifolds but $Y$ isn't. The space $Z$ in his example has dimension four. Is it known if this is ...
- 439
14
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Quotient of solid torus by swapping coordinates on boundary
Let $T$ be the solid 2-torus and let $\sim$ be the equivalence relation on $T$ generated by the relation $\{(\alpha,\beta) \sim (\beta,\alpha) \mid \alpha, \beta \in S^1\}$ on the boundary $\partial T=...
- 1,813
14
votes
1
answer
937
views
Classification of 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary
It is well-known that every closed, connected and orientable 3-manifold $\mathcal{M}$ can uniquely be decomposed as
$$\mathcal{M}=P_{1}\#\dots\# P_{n}$$
where $P_{i}$ are prime manifolds, i.e. ...
- 1,429
9
votes
2
answers
245
views
Toroidal Heegaard splittings
Suppose I have a Heegaard splitting of a closed oriented irreducible 3-manifold $M$, defined by the Heegaard diagram $(\Sigma_{g},\{\alpha_{1},\dots,\alpha_{g}\},\{\beta_{1},\dots,\beta_{g}\})$. Are ...
- 459
7
votes
2
answers
534
views
Does there exist a Dehn filling of an irreducible 3-manifold with toroidal boundaries which is still irreducible?
Let $M$ be a compact, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold with incompressible toroidal boundary (there might be more than one boundary component). Is it always possible to choose appropriate slopes on ...
- 605
7
votes
1
answer
354
views
Decomposition of manifolds with toroidal boundary
Let $\mathcal{M}$ be a compact, connected, oriented 3-manifolds with non-empty connected boundary $\partial\mathcal{M}$. Then, following this article, it is stated that $\mathcal{M}$ can be written as
...
- 1,429
7
votes
1
answer
731
views
What is "topology in dimension 3.5"?
I've noticed a couple of conference titles which reference something called
"topology in dimension 3.5," such as this one and this one. This subject seems quite mysterious to me — it looks like ...
- 6,881
6
votes
1
answer
370
views
"Classification" of (orientable) 3-manifolds with genus-g-surface as their boundary
This is in some sense a generalization of the question I asked some time ago. I am very sorry if this question is too basic for MathOverflow, but I just started learning about some more detailed ...
- 1,429
5
votes
1
answer
215
views
Is it possible to fill a boundary component of an irreducible 3-manifold using a handlebody so that the resulting manifold is still irreducible?
Let $M$ be a compact, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold with boundary (possibly more than one component). Let $S\subseteq\partial M$ be one of its boundary components, which is an orientable surface ...
- 605
5
votes
0
answers
96
views
$M^3$ admits $Sol$ geometry if and only if $\pi_1M$ is virtually solvable but not virtually nilpotent?
Let $M$ be a closed, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold and having an infinite fundamental group. Is it true that $M$ admits $Sol$ geometry if and only if $\pi_1M$ is virtually solvable but not ...
- 605
3
votes
0
answers
93
views
Finiteness of non-orientable 3-manifolds with the same orientable two-fold cover
Given a compact, orientable and boundary incompressible 3-manifold $M$. Suppose that either $M$ is closed, or $\partial M$ consists of tori.
For which non-orientable 3-manifolds $N$, the orientable ...
- 605
2
votes
1
answer
727
views
pseudo-Anosov maps on surfaces with boundary
In "Automorphisms of Surfaces after Nielsen & Thurston" by Casson & Bleiler (on pages 75 - 80) they discuss classifying automorphisms of a surface. They show that, if $S$ is a closed ...
- 3,165
1
vote
1
answer
134
views
Annulus theorem for pseudomanifolds
Lets say I take an arbitrary closed and smooth $d$-manifolds $\mathcal{M}$. Now, it is a well-known fact that whenever I take two (sufficiently nice embedded) closed $d$-balls $B_{1}$ and $B_{2}$ in $\...
- 1,429
1
vote
1
answer
91
views
When is a 2-bridge knot hyperbolic?
It is known that 2-bridge knots in $S^3$ can be classified by the Schubert form. My question is: which 2-bridge knots are hyperbolic? (Do we have a complete classification for hyperbolicity in 2-...
- 605
1
vote
0
answers
297
views
Boundary map in Mayer-Vietoris sequence of cohomology
Suppose $M$ is a 3-manifold with connected boundary. Let $T$ be a tangle in $M$, i.e., $T$ is a embedded connected 1-submanifold whose boundary is on $\partial M$ ($T$ is not closed). Moreover, ...
- 673