The Standard Complex and the 3-dimensional Poincaré Conjecture

Abstract

We develop a method for constructing standard complexes which turns easy the calculation of their algebraic invariants and, as well, the precise evaluation of whether these complexes are embeddable or not in a 3-manifold. This method applies to all familiar spines of 3-manifolds and, in particular, to the Bing house with two rooms and the classical standard spine of the Poincaré sphere. Finally, we exhibit a compact, connected standard complex which is embeddable into an orientable 3-manifold, its fundamental group is $Z_2$ and it contains a Klein bottle. This standard complex is the spine of a reducible 3-manifold $M^3$, sum of a Seifert fiber space with a fake solid torus, whose universal covering space $W^3$ is a closed and simply connected 3-manifold that cannot be homeomorphic to $S^3$.

25 pages, 6 figures