Geometry & Topology, Vol. 6 (2002) Paper no. 26, pages 889--904.

Attaching handlebodies to 3-manifolds

Marc Lackenby


Abstract. The main theorem of this paper is a generalisation of well known results about Dehn surgery to the case of attaching handlebodies to a simple 3-manifold. The existence of a finite set of `exceptional' curves on the boundary of the 3-manifold is established. Provided none of these curves is attached to the boundary of a disc in a handlebody, the resulting manifold is shown to be word hyperbolic and `hyperbolike'. We then give constructions of gluing maps satisfying this condition. These take the form of an arbitrary gluing map composed with powers of a suitable homeomorphism of the boundary of the handlebodies.

Keywords. 3-manifold, handlebody, word hyperbolic

AMS subject classification. Primary: 57N10. Secondary: 57N16, 57M50, 20F65.

DOI: 10.2140/gt.2002.6.889

E-print: arXiv:math.GT/0109059

Submitted to GT on 19 February 2002. (Revised 20 December 2002.) Paper accepted 08 November 2002. Paper published 21 December 2002.

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Marc Lackenby
Mathematical Institute, Oxford University
24-29 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3LB, UK
Email: lackenby@maths.ox.ac.uk

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