Essential annuli in genus two handlebody exteriors

Abstract

We classify all potential configurations of essential annuli in a genus two atoroidal handlebody exterior in the $3$-sphere, building on two recent classifications: the classification of the JSJ-graph of the exterior and the classification of essential annuli in the exterior. In contrast to knots, genus two handlebody exteriors may contain infinitely many non-isotopic essential annuli, due to the JSJ-graph classification. Our main result characterizes the numbers of different types of essential annuli in such an infinite family.

arXiv comment25 pages, 11 Figures