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I've been asked to find the fundamental group of $(S^1times S^2)#(S^1times S^2)$. However, connected sum, as briefly defined in my class (in a vague way) was as follows: You remove a $2$-disk from each surface and concatenate them. My questions are:

1. In this case, do we remove a $3$-disk?


2. I have been told to use the Van Kampen theorem. How do I make the explicit partitions?


3. I would imagine that I would at least need the fundamental group of $(S^1times S^2)$, which is $mathbb{Z}$. How do I proceed from here?

Yes, you remove a 3-disk from each manifold.

More specifically, and to address question 2, let me set up some notation. Denote $M_1$, $M_2$ to be the two $S^1 times S^2$ summands. Let $D_i subset M_i$ be a subset homeomorphic to the open 3-disk $mathbb B = {x in mathbb R^3 mid |x| < 1}$, and let $f_i : D_i to mathbb B$ be a homeomorphism. Denote $mathbb B^{1/2} = {x in mathbb R^3 mid |x| < 1/2}$, and denote $B_i^{1/2} = f_i^{-1}(mathbb B^{1/2})$. Let $S^i = partial (M_i - B_i^{1/2})$ which also equals $f_i^{-1}$ of the sphere of radius $1/2$.

As a topological space, the connected sum $M_1 # M_2$ is the quotient space of the disjoint union $M_1 - B^{1/2}_i$ and $M_2 - B^{1/2}_i$ where $S_1$ is glued to $S_2$ using the homeomorphism $f_2^{-1} circ f_1 : S_1 to S_2$.

The open sets needed for application of Van Kampen's theorem are
$$U_1 = (M_1 - B^{1/2}_1) cup f_2^{-1}(mathbb B - mathbb B^{1/2})
$$
and
$$U_2 = (M_2 - B^{1/2}_2) cup f_1^{-1}(mathbb B - mathbb B^{1/2})
$$

To address question 3, what you need for Van Kampen's Theorem is $pi_1 U_1$ and $pi_1 U_2$ and $pi_1 (U_1 cap U_2)$. It should be straightforward to make the following deductions:

• 
  $pi_1 U_i approx pi_1 M_i$ (this is, itself, a Van Kampen's Theorem application)


• 
  $U_1 cap U_2$ is homeomorphic to $S^2 times (-1,+1)$ and hence is simply connected.