Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
In [2], J. Gross provides an infinite collection of topologically distinct irreducible homology 3-spheres. In this paper, we construct for any finitely generated abelian group A, an infinite collection {Mi} of topologically distinct irreducible closed 3-manifolds such that H1(Mi) = A for each i.
The proof consists of first constructing a closed irreducible 3-manifold MA with H(MA) = A, and then providing a method for producing more such manifolds with the same first homology group.
All maps and spaces in this paper are assumed to be in the piecewise linear category, and all subspaces are assumed to be piecewise linear subspaces.
A 3-manifold M is irreducible if each 2-sphere in M bounds a 3-cell in M. A compact 2-manifold (or surface) F in a compact 3-manifold M is properly embedded in M if F ∩ bdM = bdF.