Genus two Heegaard splittings of orientable three-manifolds

Abstract

It was shown by Bonahon-Otal and Hodgson-Rubinstein that any two genus-one Heegaard splittings of the same 3-manifold (typically a lens space) are isotopic. On the other hand, it was shown by Boileau, Collins and Zieschang that certain Seifert manifolds have distinct genus-two Heegaard splittings. In an earlier paper, we presented a technique for comparing Heegaard splittings of the same manifold and, using this technique, derived the uniqueness theorem for lens space splittings as a simple corollary. Here we use a similar technique to examine, in general, ways in which two non-isotopic genus-two Heegard splittings of the same 3-manifold compare, with a particular focus on how the corresponding hyperelliptic involutions are related.Comment: 65 pages. Published copy, also available at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTMon2/paper24.abs.htm