Scharlemann's conjecture on reducible refills of a genus-two handlebody

Let WW be a genus-two handlebody embedded in a 3-manifold MM, and let [?][?] and [?][?] be essential discs in WW whose refills produce exteriors M[α]M[\alpha] and M[β]M[\beta]. Suppose (M,W)(M,W) is admissible, meaning that every sphere in MM separates, MM has no lens-space connected summands, any two curves in M\partial M compressible in MM are isotopic in M\partial M, MWM-W is irreducible, and M\partial M is incompressible in NN. Scharlemann's conjecture. If (M,W)(M,W) is admissible, then at least one of the following occurs: M=S3M=S^3 and WW is unknotted, at least one of M[α]M[\alpha] and M[β]M[\beta] is irreducible and boundary-irreducible, or α\alpha and β\beta are aligned in WW. The conjecture describes the exceptional configurations in which both refilled exteriors can fail to be irreducible and boundary-irreducible; the source does not provide enough information here to determine its resolution status.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Scott A. Taylor, “Boring split links”, arXiv:0709.4051 (2009).

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