Lickorish-Wallace theorem

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The theorem that any closed, orientable, connected 3-manifold may be obtained by performing Dehn surgery on a framed link in the 3-sphere with ±1 surgery coefficients, and that each component of the link can be assumed to be unknotted.

Origin

• The theorem was proved independently in the early 1960s by W. B. R. Lickorish and Andrew H. Wallace.