arXiv research

This paper and its companion arXiv:1002.4564 have been replaced by arXiv:1602.05139. We give a general simple definition of JSJ decompositions by means of a universal maximality property. The JSJ decomposition should not be viewed as a tree (which is not uniquely defined) but as a canonical deformation space of trees. …

We give an example of two JSJ decompositions of a group that are not related by conjugation, conjugation of edge-inclusions, and slide moves. This answers the question of Rips and Sela stated in "Cyclic splittings of finitely presented groups and the canonical JSJ decomposition," Ann. of Math. 146 (1997), 53-109. On th…

This is an account of the theory of JSJ decompositions of finitely generated groups, as developed in the last twenty years or so. We give a simple general definition of JSJ decompositions (or rather of their Bass-Serre trees), as maximal universally elliptic trees. In general, there is no preferred JSJ decomposition, a…

Study the JSJ-decomposition of a specific 3-manifold.

The JSJ decomposition helps classify genus two handlebody-knots.

We present an algorithm to construct the JSJ decomposition of one-ended hyperbolic groups which are fundamental groups of graphs of free groups with cyclic edge groups. Our algorithm runs in double exponential time, and is the first algorithm on JSJ decompositions to have an explicit time bound. Our methods are combina…

We give a description of the model theoretic relation of forking independence in terms of the notion of JSJ decompositions in non abelian free groups.

Researchers describe and compare decompositions of Poincaré duality pairs.

Generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups are defined as fundamental groups of graphs of groups with infinite cyclic vertex and edge groups. Forester proved (in "On uniqueness of JSJ decompositions of finitely generated groups", Comment. Math. Helv. 78 (2003) pp 740-751) that in most cases the defining graphs are cyclic JSJ …

We present an algorithm that computes Bowditch's canonical JSJ decomposition of a given one-ended hyperbolic group over its virtually cyclic subgroups. The algorithm works by identifying topological features in the boundary of the group. As a corollary we also show how to compute the JSJ decomposition of such a group o…

The abstract discusses applications of Menke's JSJ decomposition to symplectic fillings of various 3-manifolds.

Let $M$ be a 3-manifold with torus boundary components $T_1$ and $T_2$. Let $φ\colon T_1 \to T_2$ be a homeomorphism, $M_φ$ the manifold obtained from $M$ by gluing $T_1$ to $T_2$ via the map $φ$, and $T$ the image of $T_1$ in $M_φ$. We show that if $φ$ is "sufficiently complicated" then any incompressible or strongly …

Develops a diagrammatic method for symplectic filling classifications.

Abstract: Proves relative versions of group splitting results.

In this paper we extend previous results concerning the behaviour of JSJ decompositions of closed 3-manifolds with respect to the profinite completion to the case of compact 3-manifolds with boundary. We also illustrate an alternative and perhaps more natural approach to part of the original theorem, using relative coh…

3-manifolds with toral boundary are uniquely determined by their profinite completions.

Let $M$ be a closed orientable 3-manifold with a genus two Heegaard splitting $(V_1, V_2; F)$ and a non-trivial JSJ-decomposition, where all components of the intersection of the JSJ-tori and $V_i$ are not $\partial$-parallel in $V_i$ for $i=1,2$. If $G$ is a finite group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms actin…

Motivated by the algorithmic study of 3-dimensional manifolds, we explore the structural relationship between the JSJ decomposition of a given 3-manifold and its triangulations. Building on work of Bachman, Derby-Talbot and Sedgwick, we show that a "sufficiently complicated" JSJ decomposition of a 3-manifold enforces a…

Let $M$ be a closed orientable 3-manifold with a genus two Heegaard splitting $(V_1, V_2; F)$ and a non-trivial JSJ-decomposition, where all components of the intersection of the JSJ-tori and $V_i$ are not $\partial$-parallel in $V_i$ for $i=1,2$. If $G$ is a finite group of orientation-preserving smooth actions on $M$…

This paper and its companion arXiv:0911.3173 have been replaced by arXiv:1602.05139. We define the compatibility JSJ tree of a group G over a class of subgroups. It exists whenever G is finitely presented and leads to a canonical tree (not a deformation space) which is invariant under automorphisms. Under acylindricity…

Study of knot surgeries and JSJ decompositions to tackle $L$-space conjecture.

We compute the Minimal Entropy of every closed, orientable $3$-manifold, showing that its cube equals the sum of the cubes of the minimal entropies of each hyperbolic component arising from the $JSJ$ decomposition of each prime summand. As a consequence we show that the cube of the Minimal Entropy is additive with resp…

The paper proves a theorem about shared Dehn surgeries between knots.

The authors previously described an algebraic analogue of the JSJ-decomposition of a 3-manifold. This analogue is defined for any finitely presented, one-ended group. We study this analogue in the special case of Poincaré duality pairs.

Outer automorphism group of hyperbolic groups is HHG under certain conditions.

We describe a new approach to the canonical decompositions of 3-manifolds along tori and annuli due to Jaco-Shalen and Johannson (with ideas from Waldhausen) - the so-called JSJ-decomposition theorem. This approach gives an accessible proof of the decomposition theorem; in particular it does not use the annulus-torus t…

We find canonical decompositions for finitely presented groups which specialize to the classical JSJ-decomposition when restricted to the fundamental groups of Haken manifolds. The decompositions that we obtain are invariant under automorphisms of the group. A crucial new ingredient is the concept of a regular neighbou…

New topological criterion extends arithmetic invariants in hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

Proves Farrell--Jones Conjecture for hyperbolic groups and their automorphisms.

We give a sufficient condition for an open 3-manifold to admit a decomposition along properly embedded open annuli and tori, generalizing the toric splitting of Jaco-Shalen and Johannson.

New analysis of crushing surfaces of positive genus impacts triangulation complexity.

Let G be a one-ended group acting discretely and co-compactly on a CAT(0) space X. We show that the boundary of X has no cut points and that one can detect splittings of $G$ over two-ended groups and recover its JSJ decomposition from the boundary. We show that any discrete action of a group G on a CAT(0) space X satis…

New research shows that many slopes are characterizing for satellite knots.

This paper is a survey of some of the most elementary consequences of the JSJ-decomposition and geometrization for knot and link complements in the 3-sphere. Formulated in the language of graphs, the result is the construction of a bijective correspondence between the isotopy classes of links in $S^3$ and a class of ve…

The study finds generalized torsion elements in 3-manifolds from specific knot surgeries.

Let $Γ$ be a word hyperbolic group with a cyclic JSJ decomposition that has only rigid vertex groups, which are all fundamental groups of closed surface groups. We show that any group $H$ quasi-isometric to $Γ$ is abstractly commensurable with $Γ$.

Every negative amphichiral knot is rationally slice.

Let G be the fundamental group of a connected, closed, orientable 3-manifold. We explicitly compute its virtually cyclic geometric dimension. Among the tools we use are the prime and JSJ decompositions of M, several push-out type constructions, as well as some Bredon cohomology computations.

We introduce the notion of a `canonical' splitting over Z or ZxZ for a finitely generated group G. We show that when G happens to be the fundamental group of an orientable Haken manifold M with incompressible boundary, then the decomposition of the group naturally obtained from canonical splittings is closely related t…

The study characterizes slopes for hyperbolic knots and Whitehead doubles.

Any closed orientable and smooth non-positively curved manifold M is known to admit a geometric characteristic splitting, analogous to the JSJ decomposition in three dimensions. We show that when this splitting consists of pieces which are Seifert fibered or pieces each of whose fundamental group has non-trivial centre…

Auckly gave two examples of irreducible integer homology spheres (one toroidal and one hyperbolic) which are not surgery on a knot in the three-sphere. Using Heegaard Floer homology, the authors and Karakurt provided infinitely many small Seifert fibered examples. In this note, we extend those results to give infinitel…

We show that after one stabilization, a strongly irreducible Heegaard splitting of suitably large genus of a graph manifold is isotopic to an amalgamation along a modified version of the system of canonical tori in the JSJ decomposition. As a corollary, two strongly irreducible Heegaard splittings of a graph manifold o…

This book provides a self-contained introduction to the topology and geometry of surfaces and three-manifolds. The main goal is to describe Thurston's geometrisation of three-manifolds, proved by Perelman in 2002. The book is divided into three parts: the first is devoted to hyperbolic geometry, the second to surfaces,…

Hempel has shown that the fundamental groups of knot complements are residually finite. This implies that every nontrivial knot must have a finite-sheeted, noncyclic cover. We give an explicit bound, $Φ(c)$, such that if $K$ is a nontrivial knot in the three-sphere with a diagram with $c$ crossings and a particularly s…

We prove a structure theorem for 3-manifolds with non-trivial JSJ-decomposition and 2-generated fundamental group. We deduce a variety of Corollaries. Note this is not a complete classification of such manifolds. In particular we believe that one of the families in our list is empty. If you know something about hyperbo…

Given a uniform foliation by Gromov hyperbolic leaves on a $3$-manifold, we show that the action of the fundamental group on the universal circle is minimal and transitive on pairs of different points. We also prove two other results: we prove that general uniform Reebless foliations are $\mathbb{R}$-covered and we giv…

There has been much recent interest into those properties of a 3-manifold determined by the profinite completion of its fundamental group. In this paper we give readily computable criteria specifying precisely when two orientable graph manifold groups have isomorphic profinite completions. Our results also distinguish …