Inequivalent Cantor Sets in $R^{3}$ Whose Complements Have the Same Fundamental Group

Abstract

For each Cantor set C in $R^{3}$, all points of which have bounded local genus, we show that there are infinitely many inequivalent Cantor sets in $R^{3}$ with complement having the same fundamental group as the complement of C. This answers a question from Open Problems in Topology and has as an application a simple construction of nonhomeomorphic open 3-manifolds with the same fundamental group. The main techniques used are analysis of local genus of points of Cantor sets, a construction for producing rigid Cantor sets with simply connected complement, and manifold decomposition theory. The results presented give an argument that for certain groups G, there are uncountably many nonhomeomorphic open 3-manifolds with fundamental group G.