Minimal crystallizations of 3-manifolds

Abstract

We have introduced the weight of a group which has a presentation with number of relations is at most the number of generators. We have shown that the number of facets of any contracted pseudotriangulation of a connected closed 3-manifold $M$ is at least the weight of $\pi(M, \ast)$. This lower bound is sharp for the 3-manifolds $\mathbb{R P}^3$, $L(3,1)$, $L(5,2)$, $S^1\times S^1 \times S^1$, $S^2 \times S^1$, $S^2 \mbox{$\times \hspace{-2.8mm}_{-}$} S^1$ and $S^3/Q_8$, where $Q_8$ is the quaternion group. Moreover, there is a unique such facet minimal pseudotriangulation in each of these seven cases. We have also constructed contracted pseudotriangulations of $L(kq-1,q)$ with $4(q+k-1)$ facets for $q \geq 3$, $k \geq 2$ and $L(kq+1,q)$ with $4(q+k)$ facets for $q\geq 4$, $k\geq 1$. By a recent result of Swartz, our pseudotriangulations of $L(kq+1, q)$ are facet minimal when $kq+1$ are even. In 1979, Gagliardi found presentations of the fundamental group of a manifold $M$ in terms of a contracted pseudotriangulation of $M$. Our construction is the converse of this, namely, given a presentation of the fundamental group of a 3-manifold $M$, we construct a contracted pseudotriangulation of $M$. So, our construction of a contracted pseudotriangulation of a 3-manifold $M$ is based on a presentation of the fundamental group of $M$ and it is computer-free.