In mathematics, the surface subgroup conjecture of

Friedhelm Waldhausen Friedhelm Waldhausen (born 1938 in Millich, Hückelhoven, Rhine Province) is a German mathematician known for his work in algebraic topology. He made fundamental contributions in the fields of 3-manifolds and (algebraic) K-theory. Career Wald ...

states that the

fundamental group In the mathematical field of algebraic topology, the fundamental group of a topological space is the group of the equivalence classes under homotopy of the loops contained in the space. It records information about the basic shape, or holes, of ...

of every closed, irreducible

3-manifold In mathematics, a 3-manifold is a space that locally looks like Euclidean 3-dimensional space. A 3-manifold can be thought of as a possible shape of the universe. Just as a sphere looks like a plane to a small enough observer, all 3-manifolds ...

with infinite

has a surface subgroup. By "surface subgroup" we mean the fundamental group of a closed surface not the 2-sphere. This problem is listed as Problem 3.75 in

Robion Kirby Robion Cromwell Kirby (born February 25, 1938) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in low-dimensional topology. Together with Laurent C. Siebenmann he invented the Kirby–Siebenmann invariant ...

's problem list.

''Problems in low-dimensional topology''
/ref> Assuming the

geometrization conjecture In mathematics, Thurston's geometrization conjecture states that each of certain three-dimensional topological spaces has a unique geometric structure that can be associated with it. It is an analogue of the uniformization theorem for two-dimens ...

, the only open case was that of closed

hyperbolic 3-manifold In mathematics, more precisely in topology and differential geometry, a hyperbolic 3–manifold is a manifold of dimension 3 equipped with a hyperbolic metric, that is a Riemannian metric which has all its sectional curvatures equal to -1. I ...

s. A proof of this case was announced in the summer of 2009 by

Jeremy Kahn Jeremy Adam Kahn (born October 26, 1969) is an American mathematician. He works on hyperbolic geometry, Riemann surfaces and complex dynamics. Education Kahn grew up in New York City and attended Hunter College High School. He was a child prodi ...

and

Vladimir Markovic Vladimir Marković is a Professor of Mathematics at University of Oxford. He was previously the John D. MacArthur Professor at the California Institute of Technology (2013–2020) and Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University o ...

and outlined in a talk August 4, 2009 at the FRG (Focused Research Group) Conference hosted by the University of Utah. A preprint appeared in the arxiv.org server in October 2009. Their paper was published in the ''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as t ...

'' in 2012. In June 2012, Kahn and Markovic were given the

Clay Research Award __NOTOC__ The Clay Research Award is an annual award given by the Oxford-based Clay Mathematics Institute to mathematicians to recognize their achievement in mathematical research. The following mathematicians have received the award: {, class=" ...

s by the

Clay Mathematics Institute The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) is a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. Formerly based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the corporate address is now in Denver, Colorado. CMI's sc ...

at a ceremony in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

References

3-manifolds Conjectures {{topology-stub

See also

References