On the number of periodic orbits of Morse-Smale flows on graph manifolds
arXiv:1202.2042
Abstract
For a closed oriented 3-manifold we define to be the minimal non-negative number such that in each homotopy class of non-singular vector fields of there is a Morse-Smale vector field with less or equal to periodic orbits. We combine the construction process of Morse-Smale flows given in [2] with handle decompositions of compact orientable surfaces to provide an upper bound to the number for oriented Seifert manifolds and oriented graph manifolds prime to $\stwo\times\sone$.
12 pages, 2 figures