Manifolds of even dimension with amenable fundamental group.
Using a new definition of the second and third Johsnon homomorphisms, we simplify and extend the work of Morita on the Casson invariant of homology-spheres defined by Heegard splittings. In particular, we calculate the Casson invariant of the homology-sphere obtained by gluing two handlebodies along a homeomorphism of the boundary belonging to the Torelli subgroup.
Let B be a 3-dimensional handlebody of genus g. Let ℳ be the group of the isotopy classes of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of B. We construct a 2-dimensional simplicial complex X, connected and simply-connected, on which ℳ acts by simplicial transformations and has only a finite number of orbits. From this action we derive an explicit finite presentation of ℳ.