Definition
A Seifert manifold is a closed 3-manifold together with a decomposition into a disjoint union of circles (called fibers) such that each fiber has a tubular neighborhood that forms a standard fibered torus.
A standard fibered torus corresponding to a pair of coprime integers (a,b) with a>0 is the surface bundle of the automorphism of a disk given by rotation by an angle of 2πb/a (with the natural fibering by circles). If a = 1 the middle fiber is called ordinary, while if a>1 the middle fiber is called exceptional. A compact Seifert fiber space has only a finite number of exceptional fibers.
The set of fibers forms a 2-dimensional orbifold, denoted by B and called the base -also called the orbit surface- of the fibration. It has an underlying 2-dimensional surface B0, but may have some special orbifold points corresponding to the exceptional fibers.
The definition of Seifert fibration can be generalized in several ways. The Seifert manifold is often allowed to have a boundary (also fibered by circles, so it is a union of tori). When studying non-orientable manifolds, it is sometimes useful to allow fibers to have neighborhoods that look like the surface bundle of a reflection (rather than a rotation) of a disk, so that some fibers have neighborhoods looking like fibered Klein bottles, in which case there may be one-parameter families of exceptional curves. In both of these cases, the base B of the fibration usually has a non-empty boundary.
Read more about this topic: Seifert Fiber Space
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Mothers often are too easily intimidated by their children’s negative reactions...When the child cries or is unhappy, the mother reads this as meaning that she is a failure. This is why it is so important for a mother to know...that the process of growing up involves by definition things that her child is not going to like. Her job is not to create a bed of roses, but to help him learn how to pick his way through the thorns.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“It’s a rare parent who can see his or her child clearly and objectively. At a school board meeting I attended . . . the only definition of a gifted child on which everyone in the audience could agree was “mine.””
—Jane Adams (20th century)
“Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)