Short direct proof of a known (but not well-known) result about the construction of universal covering spaces. Stefan Friedl kindly pointed out to us that there was a gap in the previous version of the note. The ensuing discussion resulted in an even shorter and more straightforward proof of the theorem. We are grateful to Stefan for his helpful intervention
We give a short proof that, for nice $X$, the based fundamental groupoid of $X$ with topology induced by the compact open topology on the space of paths, is indeed the universal covering space of $X$.
We discuss various uniform structures and topologies on the universal covering space $\widetilde X$ and on the fundamental group $π_1(X,x_0)$. We introduce a canonical uniform structure $CU(X)$ on a topological space $X$ and use it to relate topologies on $\widetilde X$ and uniform structures on $\widetilde{CU(X)}$. Using our concept of universal Peano space we show connections between the topology introduced by Spanier and a uniform structure of Berestovskii and Plaut. We give a sufficient and necessary condition for Berestovskii-Plaut structure to be identical with the one generated by the u…
In this paper, we study necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of categorical universal coverings using open covers of a given space $X$. As some applications, first we present a generalized version of the Shelah Theorem (Mycielski's conjecture: If $X$ is a Peano continuum, then $π_1(X,x)$ is uncountable or $X$ has a simply connected universal covering) which states that a first countable Peano space has a categorical universal covering or has an uncountable fundamental group. Second, we prove that the one point union $X_1\vee X_2=\frac{{X_1}\cup {X_2}}{{x_1}\sim {x_2}}$ has a c…
We define a covering of a profinite graph to be a projective limit of a system of covering maps of finite graphs. With this notion of covering, we develop a covering theory for profinite graphs which is in many ways analogous to the classical theory of coverings of abstract graphs. For example, it makes sense to talk about the universal cover of a profinite graph and we show that it always exists and is unique. We define the profinite fundamental group of a profinite graph and show that a connected cover of a connected profinite graph is the universal cover if and only if its profinite fundame…
In this paper we devote to spaces that are not homotopically hausdorff and study their covering spaces. We introduce the notion of small covering and prove that every small covering of $X$ is the universal covering in categorical sense. Also, we introduce the notion of semi-locally small loop space which is the necessary and sufficient condition for existence of universal cover for non-homotopically hausdorff spaces, equivalently existence of small covering spaces. Also, we prove that for semi-locally small loop spaces, $X$ is a small loop space if and only if every cover of $X$ is trivial if …
We give a homological characterization of $n$-manifolds whose universal covering $\Wi M$ has Gromov's macroscopic dimension $\dim_{mc}\Wi M<n$. As the result we distinguish $\dim_{mc}$ from the macroscopic dimension $\dim_{MC}$ defined by the author \cite{Dr}. We prove the inequality $\dim_{mc}\Wi M<\dim_{MC}\Wi M=n$ for every closed $n$-manifold $M$ whose fundamental group $π$ is a geometrically finite amenable duality group with the cohomological dimension $cd(π)> n$.
This paper is devoted to study some topological properties of the SG subgroup, $π_1^{sg}(X,x)$, of the quasitopological fundamental group of a based space $(X,x)$, $\pt$, its topological properties as a subgroup of the topological fundamental group $π_1^τ(X,x)$ and its influence on the existence of universal covering of $X$. First, we introduce small generated spaces which have indiscrete topological fundamental groups and also small generated coverings which are universal coverings in the categorical sense. Second, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of the small ge…
In topology, the notions of the fundamental group and the universal cover are closely intertwined. By importing usual notions from topology into the algebraic and arithmetic setting, we construct a fundamental group family from a universal cover, both of which are schemes. A geometric fiber of the fundamental group family (as a topological group) is canonically the 'etale fundamental group. The constructions apply to all connected quasicompact quasiseparated schemes. With different methods and hypotheses, this fundamental group family was already constructed by Deligne.
In his classical textbook on algebraic topology Edwin Spanier developed the theory of covering spaces within a more general framework of lifting spaces (i.e., Hurewicz fibrations with unique path-lifting property). Among other, Spanier proved that for every space $X$ there exists a universal lifting space, which however need not be simply connected, unless the base space $X$ is semi-locally simply connected. The question on what exactly is the fundamental group of the universal space was left unanswered. The main source of lifting spaces are inverse limits of covering spaces over $X$, or more …
The traditional approach of defining the fundamental group first and then constructing universal coverings works well only for the class of Poincar\' e spaces. For general spaces there were several attempts to define generalized coverings (see \cite{BP3}, \cite{BDLM}, and \cite{FisZas}), yet there is no general theory so far that covers all path connected spaces. In this paper we plan to remedy that by changing the order of things: we define the universal covering first and its group of deck transformations is the new fundamental group of the base space. The basic idea is that a non-trivial lo…
The theory of lifting classes and the Reidemeister number of single-valued maps of a finite polyhedron $X$ is extended to $n$-valued maps by replacing liftings to universal covering spaces by liftings with codomain an orbit configuration space, a structure recently introduced by Xicoténcatl. The liftings of an $n$-valued map $f$ split into self-maps of the universal covering space of $X$ that we call lift-factors. An equivalence relation is defined on the lift-factors of $f$ and the number of equivalence classes is the Reidemeister number of $f$. The fixed point classes of $f$ are the projecti…
The fundamental groupoid of a space becomes enriched over the category of topological spaces when the hom-sets are endowed with topologies intimately related to universal constructions of topological groups. This paper is devoted to a generalization of classical covering theory in the context of this construction.
In general a universal covering of a non connected topological group need not admit a topological group structure such that the covering map is a morphism of topological groups. This result is due to R.L. Taylor (1953). We generalise this result and relate it to the theory of obstructions to group extensions. The methods use: the equivalence between covering maps of X and covering groupoids of the fundamental groupoid of X; the equivalence between group groupoids and crossed modules; and descriptions of cohomology in terms of crossed complexes.
H. Fischer et al. (Topology and its Application, 158 (2011) 397-408.) introduced the Spanier group of a based space $(X,x)$ which is denoted by $\psp$. By a Spanier space we mean a space $X$ such that $\psp=π_1(X,x)$, for every $x\in X$. In this paper, first we give an example of Spanier spaces. Then we study the influence of the Spanier group on covering theory and introduce Spanier coverings which are universal coverings in the categorical sense. Second, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of Spanier coverings for non-homotopically path Hausdorff spaces. Finally, w…
We develop a generalized covering space theory for a class of uniform spaces called coverable spaces. Coverable spaces include all geodesic metric spaces, connected and locally pathwise connected compact topological spaces, in particular Peano continua, as well as more pathological spaces like the topologist's sine curve. Each coverable space has a generalized universal cover with universal and lifting properties. Associated with this generalized universal cover is a functorial uniform space invariant called the deck group, which is related to the classical fundamental group by a natural homom…
The "zero in the spectrum conjecture" asserted (in its strongest form) that for any manifold M zero should be in the l2-spectrum of the Laplacian (on forms) of the universal covering of M, i.e. that at least one (unreduced) L2-cohomology group of (the universal covering of) M is non-zero. Farber and Weinberger gave the first counterexamples to this conjecture. In this paper, using their fundamental idea to show the following stronger version of this result: Let G be a finitely presented group and suppose that the homology groups H_k(G,\ell^2(G)) are zero for k=0,1,2. For every dimension n\ge 6…
In this paper, we unify various approaches to generalized covering space theory by introducing a categorical framework in which coverings are defined purely in terms of unique lifting properties. For each category $\mathcal{C}$ of path-connected spaces having the unit disk as an object, we construct a category of $\mathcal{C}$-coverings over a given space $X$ that embeds in the category of $π_1(X,x_0)$-sets via the usual monodromy action on fibers. When $\mathcal{C}$ is extended to its coreflective hull $\mathscr{H}(\mathcal{C})$, the resulting category of based $\mathscr{H}(\mathcal{C})$-cove…
We revisit and generalize our previous algebraic construction of the chiral effective action for Conformal Field Theory on higher genus Riemann surfaces. We show that the action functional can be obtained by evaluating a certain Deligne cohomology class over the fundamental class of the underlying topological surface. This Deligne class is constructed by applying a descent procedure with respect to a Čech resolution of any covering map of a Riemann surface. Detailed calculations are presented in the two cases of an ordinary Čech cover, and of the universal covering map, which was used in our p…