The Smale conjecture for Seifert fibered spaces with hyperbolic base orbifold

Abstract

Let M be a closed orientable Seifert fibered 3-manifold with a hyperbolic base 2-orbifold, or equivalently, admitting a geometry modeled on H^2 \times R or the universal cover of SL(2,R). Our main result is that the connected component of the identity map in the diffeomorphism group Diff(M) is either contractible or homotopy equivalent to the circle, according as the center of the fundamental group of M is trivial or infinite cyclic. Apart from the remaining case of non-Haken infranilmanifolds, this completes the homeomorphism classifications of Diff(M) and of the space of Seifert fiberings of M for all compact orientable aspherical 3-manifolds. We also prove that when the base orbifold of M is hyperbolic with underlying manifold the 2-sphere with three cone points, the inclusion from the isometry group Isom(M) to Diff(M) is a homotopy equivalence.