2023/11/14 by Jessica S. Purcell, Purcell, Jessica S., Anastasiia Tsvietkova +1
Mathematics · #57K10 #57N35 #FOS: Mathematics #Geometric Analysis and Curvature Flows #Geometric Topology (math.GT) #Geometric and Algebraic Topology #Mathematical Dynamics and Fractals
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.08567
openalex publication_date 2023/11/14 · openalex created_date 2023/11/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
It is natural to ask how many isotopy classes of embedded essential surfaces lie in a given 3-manifold. The first bounds on the number of such surfaces were exponential, using normal surfaces. More recently, by restricting to alternating link complements in 3-sphere, Hass, Thompson and Tsvietkova obtained polynomial bounds, but for a limited class of surfaces: closed and spanning ones. Here, we complete the picture for classical alternating links and extend these results to other classes of cusped 3-manifolds. We give explicit polynomial bounds on all embedded essential surfaces, closed or any boundary slope, orientable or non-orientable. Our 3-manifolds are complements of links with alternating diagrams on wide classes of surfaces in broad families of 3-manifolds. This includes all alternating links in 3-sphere as well as many non-alternating ones, alternating virtual knots, many toroidally alternating knots, and most Dehn fillings of such manifolds.