Loops of handleslides for sutured diagrams

Abstract

We prove that the cut-system complex of a sutured compression body, with vertices representing cut-systems and edges corresponding to handleslides, becomes simply connected when six kinds of 2-cells are attached. Moreover, we define tight Heegaard invariants and show that each admits a unique extension to a strong Heegaard invariant. This gives a new framework for proving naturality results for Floer homology theories associated to sutured manifolds.