Divergence in 3-manifold groups

The divergence of the fundamental group of compact irreducible 3-manifolds satisfying Thurston's geometrization conjecture is calculated. For every closed Haken 3-manifold group, the divergence is either linear, quadratic or exponential, where quadratic divergence occurs precisely for graph manifolds and exponential divergence occurs when a geometric piece has hyperbolic geometry. An example is given of a closed 3-manifoldN with a Riemannian metric of nonpositive curvature such that the divergence is quadratic and such that there are two geodesic rays in the universal coverN whose divergence is precisely quadratic, settling in the negative a question of Gromov's.Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-9200433.