On 3-Submanifolds of S3 Which Admit Complete Spanning Curve Systems

Let M be a compact connected 3-submanifold of the 3-sphere S^3 with one boundary component F such that there exists a collection of n pairwise disjoint connected orientable surfaces S = {S_1, ···, S_n} properly embedded in M, ?S = {?S_1, ···, ?S_n}is a complete curve system on F. We call S a complete surface system for M, and ?S a complete spanning curve system for M. In the present paper, the authors show that the equivalent classes of complete spanning curve systems for M are unique, that is, any complete spanning curve system for M is equivalent to ?S. As an application of the result,it is shown that the image of the natural homomorphism from the mapping class group M(M) to M(F) is a subgroup of the handlebody subgroup Hn.