Search for Interesting Surfaces Immersed in 3-Manifolds
by
Saburo Matsumoto
Belhaven College
Coauthors: Richard Rannard

We introduce a computer-assisted method for searching for essential surfaces immersed in compact 3-manifolds. The method uses the theory of normal surfaces and finds the so-called (regular) projective solution space for a fixed triangulation for the 3-manifold. Although this seems impossible for an arbitrary manifold, we show that this interesting space has been completely determined for the Figure-8 knot complement.

Date received: February 10, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Mathematical Conference Abstracts. Document # cady-41.