Handle additions producing essential surfaces

Abstract

We construct a small, hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ such that, for any integer $g\geq 2$, there are infinitely many separating slopes $r$ in $\partial M$ so that $M(r)$, the 3-manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to $M$ along $r$, is hyperbolic and contains an essential separating closed surface of genus $g$. The result contrasts sharply with those known finiteness results on Dehn filling, and it also contrasts sharply with the known finiteness result on handle addition for the cases $g=0,1$. Our 3-manifold $M$ is the complement of a hyperbolic, small knot in a handlebody of genus 3.