Arc complexes, sphere complexes, and Goeritz groups

Sangbum Cho, Yuya Koda, Arim Seo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We show that if a Heegaard splitting is obtained by gluing a splitting of Hempel distance at least 4 and the genus-1 splitting of S2 × S1, then the Goeritz group of the splitting is finitely generated. To show this, we first provide a sufficient condition for a full subcomplex of the arc complex for a compact orientable surface to be contractible, which generalizes the result by Hatcher that the arc complexes are contractible. We then construct infinitely many Heegaard splittings, including the above-mentioned Heegaard splitting, for which suitably defined complexes of Haken spheres are contractible.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)333-351
Number of pages19
JournalMichigan Mathematical Journal
Volume65
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016 Jun
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mathematics(all)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Arc complexes, sphere complexes, and Goeritz groups'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this