Geometric 3-manifolds
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Contents |
1 Introduction
Let a group act on a manifold
by homeomorphisms.
A -manifold is a manifold
with a
-atlas, that is, a collection
of homeomorphisms

onto open subsets of such that all coordinate changes

are restrictions of elements of .






If we change the initial data and
, the developing map
changes by composition with an element of
.









is a group homomorphism and is called the holonomy of .
If we change the initial data and
, the holonomy homomorphisms
changes by conjugation with an element of
.
A -manifold is complete if the developing map
is surjective.
[Thurston1997] Section 3.4
Definition 1.1.
A model geometry is a smooth manifold
together with a Lie group of diffeomorphisms of
, such that:
a) is connected and simply connected;
b) acts transitively on
, with compact point stabilizers;
c) is not contained in any larger group of diffeomorphisms of
with compact point stabilizers;
d) there exists at least one compact -manifold.
[Thurston1997] Definition 3.8.1
A 3-manifold is said to be a geometric manifold if it is a -manifold for a 3-dimensional model geometry
.
2 Construction and examples
Theorem 2.1.There are eight 3-dimensional model geometries:
- the round sphere:
- Euclidean space:
- hyperbolic space:
-
-
- the universal covering of the unit tangent bundle of the hyperbolic plane:
- the Heisenberg group:


[Thurston1997] Section 3.8
Outline of Proof:
Let be the connected component of the identity of
, and let
be the stabiliser of
.
acts transitively and
is a closed, connected subgroup of
.
Case 1: . Then
has constant sectional curvature. The Cartan Theorem implies that (up to rescaling)
is isometric to one of
.
Case 2: . Let
be the
-invariant vector field such that, for each
, the direction of
is the rotation axis of
.
descends to a vector field on compact
-manifolds, therefore the flow of
must preserve volume. In our setting this implies that the flow of
acts by isometries. Hence the flowlines define a 1-dimensional foliation
with embedded leaves. The quotient
is a 2-dimensional manifold, which inherits a Riemannian metric such that
acts transitively by isometries. Thus
has constant curvature and is (up to rescaling) isometric to one of
.
is a pricipal bundle over
with fiber
or
,
The plane field
orthogonal to
has constant curvature, hence it is either a foliation or a contact structure.
Case 2a: is a foliation. Thus
is a flat bundle over
.
is one of
, hence
, which implies that
.
Case 2b: is a contact structure.
For
one would obtain for
the group of isometries of
that preserve the Hopf fibration. This is not a maximal group with compact stabilizers, thus there is no model geometry in this case.
For
one obtains
. Namely,
is the subgroup of the group of automorphisms of the standard contact structure
on
consisting of those automorphisms which are lifts of isometries of the x-y-plane.
For
one obtains
.
Case 3: . Then
is a Lie group. The only 3-dimensional unimodular Lie group which is not subsumed by one of the previous geometries is
.
3 Invariants
...
4 Classification/Characterization
A closed 3-manifold is called:
- irreducible, if every embedded 2-sphere bounds an embedded 3-ball,
- geometrically atoroidal, if there is no embedded incompressible torus,
- homotopically atoroidal, if there is no immersed incompressible torus.
Theorem 4.1 (Geometrization).
Let be a closed, orientable, irreducible, geometrically atoroidal 3-manifold.
a) If is homotopically atoroidal, then it admits an
-geometry.
b) If is not homotopically atoroidal, then it admits (at least) one of the seven non-
-geometries.
Example 4.2 (Geometrization of mapping tori).
Let be an orientation-preserving homeomorphism of the surface of genus
.
a) If , then the mapping torus
satisfies the following:
1. If is periodic, then
admits an
geometry.
2. If is reducible, then
contains an embedded incompressible torus.
3. If is Anosov, then
admits a
geometry.
b) If , then the mapping torus
satisfies the following:
1. If is periodic, then
admits an
-geometry.
2. If is reducible, then
contains an embedded incompressible torus.
3. If is pseudo-Anosov, then
admits an
-geometry.
5 Further discussion
...
6 References
- [Thurston1997] W. P. Thurston, Three-dimensional geometry and topology. Vol. 1, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1997. MR1435975 (97m:57016) Zbl 0873.57001