Suppose M is a compact orientable 3-manifold and Q ⊂ M a properly embedded orientable boundary incompressible essential surface. Denote the completions of the components of M -Q with respect to the path metric by M 1 , . . . , M k . Denote the smallest possible genus of a Heegaard splitting of M, or M j respectively, for which ∂ M, or ∂ M j respectively, is contained in one compression body by g(M, ∂ M), or g(M j , ∂ M j ) respectively. Denote the maximal number of non-parallel essential annuli that can be simultaneously embedded in M j by n j . ThenKeywords Heegaard genus · Essential surface · Genus formula
Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 57N10Heegaard splittings have long been used in the study of 3-manifolds. One reason for their continued importance in this study is that the Heegaard genus of a compact 3-manifold has proven to capture the topology of the 3-manifold more accurately than many other invariants. In particular, it provides an upper bound for the rank of the fundamental group of the 3-manifold, and this upper bound need not be sharp, as seen in the examples provided by Boileau and Zieschang [1]. We here prove the following: Let M be a compact orientable 3-manifold and Q ⊂ M an orientable boundary incompressible essential surface. Denote the completions of the components of M − Q with respect to the path metric by M 1 , . . . , M k . Denote the smallest possible genus of a Heegaard splitting of M, or M j respectively, for which ∂ M, or ∂ M j respectively, is contained in one compression body by g(M, ∂ M) or g(M j , ∂ M j ) respectively. Here g(M, ∂ M) is called the relative genus of M. Denote the maximal number of non parallel essential annuli that can be simultaneously embedded in M j by n j . Then