ON MAXIMAL COLLECTIONS OF ESSENTIAL ANNULI IN A HANDLEBODY
Fengchun Lei, JINGYAN TANG · Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications · 2006
It is known that, for a maximal collection [Formula: see text] of pairwise disjoint non-parallel essential annuli in a handlebody of genus 2, [Formula: see text]. We show that for a maximal collection [Formula: see text] of pairwise disjoint non-parallel essential annuli in a handlebody of genus n (≥ 3), [Formula: see text], and the bound is best possible.