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In this paper, we present an algorithm which, for a given compact orientable irreducible boundary irreducible 3-manifold M, verifies whether M contains an essential orientable surface (possibly, with boundary), whose genus is at most N. The algorithm is based on Haken’s theory of normal surfaces, and on a trick suggested by Jaco and consisting in estimating the mean length of boundary curves in an unknown essential surface of a given genus in the given manifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By a slope in the boundary ∂ M of a 3-manifold, we mean the isotopy class α of a finite set of disjoint simple closed curves in ∂ M that are nontrivial and pairwise nonparallel. In this paper, we construct an algorithm to decide whether or not a given orientable 3-manifold M contains an essential planar surface whose boundary has a given slope α. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]