FROM FRAMED LINKS TO CRYSTALLIZATIONS OF BOUNDED 4-MANIFOLDS

Abstract

It is well-known that every 3-manifold M3 may be represented by a framed link (L,c), which indicates the Dehn-surgery from [Formula: see text] to M3 = M3(L,c); moreover, M3 is the boundary of a PL 4-manifold M4 = M4(L, c), which is obtained from [Formula: see text] by adding 2-handles along the framed link (L, c). In this paper we study the relationships between the above representations and the representation theory of general PL-manifolds by edge-coloured graphs: in particular, we describe how to construct a 5-coloured graph representing M4=M4(L,c), directly from a planar diagram of (L,c). As a consequence, relations between the combinatorial properties of the link L and both the Heegaard genus of M3=M3(L,c) and the regular genus of M4=M4(L,c) are obtained.