For a closed, connected, and oriented 3-manifold with a non-singular flow, we construct its virtual knot diagram via a “flow-spine” of the manifold. Then, we introduce a coloring invariant of 3-manifolds through their virtual knot diagrams, and classify some 3-manifolds by using the invariant.

In this note, we collect various properties of Seifert homology spheres from the viewpoint of Dehn surgery along a Seifert fiber. We expect that many of these are known to various experts, but include them in one place, which we hope will be useful in the study of concordance and homology cobordism.

We prove that if $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}S$ is a properly embedded $\pi _1$-injective surface in a compact 3-manifold $M$, then $\pi _1S$ is separable in $\pi _1M$.

We show that the Fibered Isomorphism Conjecture (FIC) of Farrell and Jones corresponding to the stable topological pseudoisotopy functor is true for fundamental groups of a large class of 3-manifolds. We also prove that if the FIC is true for irreducible 3-manifold groups then it is true for all 3-manifold groups. In fact, this follows from a more general result we prove, namely we show that if the FIC is true for each vertex group of a graph of groups with trivial edge groups then the FIC is true for the fundamental group of the graph of groups. This result is part of a program to prove the FIC for the fundamental group of a graph of groups where all the vertex and edge groups satisfy the FIC. A consequence of the first result gives a partial solution to a problem in the problem list of R. Kirby. We also deduce that the FIC is true for a class of virtually P D3-groups.

Another main aspect of this article is to prove the FIC for all Haken 3-manifold groups assuming that the FIC is true for B-groups. By definition a B-group contains a finite index subgroup isomorphic to the fundamental group of a compact irreducible 3-manifold with incompressible nonempty boundary so that each boundary component is of genus ≥ 2. We also prove the FIC for a large class of B-groups and moreover, using a recent result of L.E. Jones we show that the surjective part of the FIC is true for any B-group.

We extend the normal surface Q-theory to non-compact 3-manifolds with respect to ideal triangulations. An ideal triangulation of a 3-manifold often has a small number of tetrahedra resulting in a system of Q-matching equations with a small number of variables. A unique feature of our approach is that a compact surface F with boundary properly embedded in a non-compact 3-manifold M with an ideal triangulation with torus cusps can be represented by a normal surface in M as follows. A half-open annulus made up of an infinite number of triangular disks is attached to each boundary component of F. The resulting surface , when normalized, will contain only a finite number of Q-disks and thus correspond to an admissible solution to the system of Q-matching equations. The correspondence is bijective.

We construct some series of polyhedral schemata which represent orientable closed connected 3-manifolds. We show that these manifolds have spines corresponding to certain balanced presentations of their fundamental groups. Then we study some covering properties of such manifolds and prove that many of them are cyclic branched coverings of lens spaces. Our theorems contain a number of published results from various sources as particular cases.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 57M12; 57M50; 57M60

In this paper we present a short definition of the Witten invariants of 3-manifolds. We also give simple proofs of invariance of those obtained for r = 3 and r = 4. Our definition is extracted from the 1993 paper of Lickorish and the Prasolov-Sossinsky book, where it is dispersed over 20 pages. We show by several examples that it is indeed convenient for calculations.

Given a fibered 3-manifold M, we investigate exactly which boundary slopes can be realized by perturbing fibrations along product discs. Since these perturbed fibrations cap off to give taut foliations in the corresponding surgery manifolds, we obtain surgery information. For example, recall that a knot k is said to satisfy Property P if no finite surgery along k yields a simply-connected 3-manifold. We show that if a non-trivial fibered knot $k\subset S^3$ fails to satisfy Property P, then necessarily k is hyperbolic with degeneracy slope $\pm\frac{2}{1}$. When k is hyperbolic and $d(k)=\frac{2}{1}$ (respectively, $-\frac{2}{1}$), we show that the only candidate for a counterexample to Property P is surgery coefficient $\frac{1}{1}$ (respectively, $-\frac{1}{1}$).

2000 Mathematical Subject Classification: primary 57M25; secondary 57R30.

Given a fibred, compact, orientable 3-manifold with single boundary component, we show that a fibration with fiber surface of negative Euler characteristic can be perturbed to yield taut foliations realizing an open interval of boundary slopes about the boundary slope of the fibration. These taut foliations extend to taut foliations in the corresponding surgery manifolds. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: primary 57M25; secondary 57R30.