Pseudo-trisections of four-manifolds with boundary

Abstract We introduce the concept of pseudo-trisections of smooth oriented compact 4-manifolds with boundary. The main feature of pseudo-trisections is that they have lower complexity than relative trisections for given 4-manifolds. We prove existence and uniqueness of pseudo-trisections, and further establish a one-to-one correspondence between pseudo-trisections and their diagrammatic representations. We next introduce the concept of pseudo-bridge trisections of neatly embedded surfaces in smooth oriented compact 4-manifolds. We develop a diagrammatic theory of pseudo-bridge trisections and provide examples of computations of invariants of neatly embedded surfaces in 4-manifolds using said diagrams.