We show that Brieskorn manifolds with their standard contact structures are contact branched coverings of spheres. This covering maps a contact open book decomposition of the Brieskorn manifold onto a Milnor open book of the sphere.
We show that standard cyclic actions on Brieskorn homology 3-spheres with non-empty fixed set do not extend smoothly to any contractible smooth 4-manifold it may bound. The quotient of any such extension would be an acyclic $4$-manifold with boundary a related Brieskorn homology sphere. We briefly discuss well known invariants of homology spheres that obstruct acyclic bounding 4-manifolds, and then use a method based on equivariant Yang-Mills moduli spaces to rule out extensions of the actions.
The Brieskorn manifolds $B(p,q,r)$ are the $r$-fold cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere $S^{3}$ branched over the torus knot $T(p,q)$. The generalised Sieradski groups $S(m,p,q)$ are groups with $m$-cyclic pre\-sen\-tation $G_{m}(w)$, where defining word $w$ has a special form, depending of $p$ and $q$. In particular, $S(m,3,2) = G_{m}(w)$ is the group with $m$ generators $x_{1}, \ldots, x_{m}$ and $m$ defining relations $w(x_{i}, x_{i+1}, x_{i+2})=1$, where $w(x_{i}, x_{i+1}, x_{i+2}) = x_{i} x_{i+2} x_{i+1}^{-1}$. Presentations of $S(2n,3,2)$ in a certain form $G_{n}(w)$ were investigated by Ho…
Loi and Piergallini showed that a smooth compact, connected $4$-manifold $X$ with boundary admits a Stein structure if and only if $X$ is a simple branched cover of a $4$-disk $D^4$ branched along a positive braided surface $S$ in a bidisk $D_{1}^{2} \times D_{2}^{2} \approx D^4$. For each integer $N \geq 2$, we construct a braided surface $S_{N}$ in $D^4$ and simple branched covers $X_{N, 1}, X_{N, 2}, \dots , X_{N, N}$ of $D^{4}$ branched along $S_{N}$ such that the covers have the same degrees, and they are mutually diffeomorphic, but the Stein structures associated to the covers are mutual…
In this paper, we determine the Euler characteristics and signatures of the exact symplectic fillings of the contact double, 3-fold or 4-fold cyclic covers of the standard contact 3-sphere branched over certain transverse quasi-positive links. These links include all quasi-positive knots with crossing numbers smaller than 11 and all quasi-positive links with crossing numbers smaller than 12 and nonzero nullity.
We prove that any closed simply-connected smooth 4-manifold is 16-fold branched covered by a product of an orientable surface with the 2-torus, where the construction is natural with respect to spin structures. In particular this solves Problem 4.113(C) in Kirby's list. We also discuss analogous results for other families of 4-manifolds with infinite fundamental groups.
We provide criteria ensuring that a tunnel number one knot $K$ is not determined by its double branched cover, in the sense that the double branched cover is also the double branched cover of a knot $K'$ not equivalent to $K$.
In this work we characterize branch data of branched coverings of even degree over the projective plane which are realizable by indecomposable branched coverings.
A branched covering surface-knot is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over a surface-knot. For a branched covering surface-knot, we have a numerical invariant called the simplifying number. We show that branched covering surface-knots with degree three have the simplifying numbers less than three.
For any alternating knot, it is known that the double branched cover of the $3$-sphere branched over the knot is an $L$-space. We show that the three-fold cyclic branched cover is also an $L$-space for any genus one alternating knot.
For any integer n > 2, the n-fold cyclic branched cover M of an alternating prime knot K in the 3-sphere determines K, meaning that if K is a knot in the 3-sphere that is not equivalent to K then its n-fold cyclic branched cover cannot be homeomorphic to M.
Braided embeddings are embeddings to a product disc bundle so the projection to the first factor is a branched cover. In this paper, we study which branched covers lift to braided embeddings, which is a generalization of the Borsuk-Ulam problem. We determine when a braided embedding in the complement of branch locus can be extended over the branch locus in smoothly (or locally flat piecewise linearly), and use it in conjunction with Hansen's criterion for lifting covers. We show that every branched cover over an orientable surface lifts to a codimension two braided embedding in the piecewise l…
Examples of knots and links distinguished by the total rank of their Khovanov homology but sharing the same two-fold branched cover are given. As a result, Khovanov homology does not yield an invariant of two-fold branched covers.
We give an explicit formula for a 2-fold branched covering from $\mathbb{CP}^2$ to $S^4$, and relate it to other maps between quotients of $S^2\times{S^2}$.
Many three dimensional manifolds are two-fold branched covers of the three dimensional sphere. However, there are some that are not. This paper includes exposition about two-fold branched covers and many examples. It shows that there are three dimensional homology spheres that do not two-fold branched cover any manifold, ones that only two-fold branched cover the three dimensional sphere, ones that just two-fold branched cover a non-trivial manifold, and ones that two-fold branched cover the sphere and non-trivial manifolds. When a manifold is surgery on a knot, the possible quotients via invo…
Given a branched covering of degree d between closed surfaces, it determines a collection of partitions of d, the branch data. In this work we show that any branch data are realized by an indecomposable primitive branched covering on a connected close surface N with Euler's characteristic less than or equal to 0. This shows that decomposable and indecomposable realizations may coexist. Moreover, we characterize the branch data of a decomposable primitive branched covering.
A branched covering surface-knot is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over an oriented surface-knot $F$, where we include the case when the covering has no branch points. A branched covering surface-knot is presented by a graph called a chart on a surface diagram of $F$. We can simplify a branched covering surface-knot by an addition of 1-handles with chart loops to a form such that its chart is the union of free edges and 1-handles with chart loops. We investigate properties of such simplifications for the case when branched covering surface-knots have a non-zero number of bra…
A branched covering surface-knot over an oriented surface-knot $F$ is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over $F$. A branched covering surface-knot over $F$ is presented by a graph called a chart on a surface diagram of $F$. For a branched covering surface-knot, an addition of 1-handles equipped with chart loops is a simplifying operation which deforms the chart to the form of the union of free edges and 1-handles with chart loops. We investigate properties of such simplifications.
We present some non-trivial calculations of Baldwin-Ozsváth-Szabó cohomology of links, and applications to Heegaard-Floer homology of branched double covers.
By a construction of Berstein and Edmonds every proper branched cover f between manifolds is a factor of a branched covering orbit map from a locally connected and locally compact Hausdorff space called the monodromy space of f to the target manifold. For proper branched covers between 2-manifolds the monodromy space is known to be a manifold. We show that this does not generalize to dimension 3 by constructing a self-map of the 3-sphere for which the monodromy space is not a locally contractible space.
Using a Heegaard diagram for the pullback of a knot $K \subset S^3$ in its cyclic branched cover $Σ_m(K)$ obtained from a grid diagram for $K$, we give a combinatorial proof for the invariance of the associated combinatorial knot Floer homology over $\mathbb{Z}$.
Using a Heegaard diagram for the pullback of a knot $K \subset S^3$ in its cyclic double branched cover $Σ_2(K)$, we give a combinatorial proof for the invariance of knot Floer homology over $\mathbb{Z}$.
The branched virtual fibering theorem by Sakuma states that every closed orientable $3$-manifold with a Heegaard surface of genus $g$ has a branched double cover which is a genus $g$ surface bundle over the circle. It is proved by Brooks that such a surface bundle can be chosen to be hyperbolic. We prove that the minimal entropy over all hyperbolic, genus $g$ surface bundles as branched double covers of the $3$-sphere behaves like 1/$g$. We also give an alternative construction of surface bundles over the circle in Sakuma's theorem when closed $3$-manifolds are branched double covers of the $3…
In a recent paper Y. Hu has given a sufficient condition for the fundamental group of the r-th cyclic branched covering of S^3 along a prime knot to be left-orderable in terms of representations of the knot group. Applying her criterion to a large class of two-bridge knots, we determine a range of the integer r>1 for which the r-th cyclic branched covering of S^3 along the knot is left-orderable.
We prove that for any closed, connected, oriented 3-manifold M, there exists an infinite family of 2-fold branched covers of M that are hyperbolic 3-manifolds and surface bundles over the circle with arbitrarily large volume.
We study simple branched coverings of degree d of the 2- and 3- dimensional sphere branched over oriented links. We demonstrate how to use braid charts to develop embeddings of these into $S^k \times D^2$ for $k=2,3 when $d=2,3$. This is an initial part of our study and represents the manuscript submitted to the RIMS workshop at Intelligence of Low Dimensional Topology.
We prove the non-left-orderability of the fundamental group of the $n$-th fold cyclic branched cover of the pretzel knot $P(3,-3,-2k-1)$ for all integers $k$ and $n\ge 1$. These $3$-manifolds are $L$-spaces discovered by Issa and Turner.
We show that if the branched double cover of an alternating link arises as $p/q \in \mathbb{Q} \setminus \mathbb{Z}$ surgery on a knot in $S^3$, then this is exhibited by a rational tangle replacement in an alternating diagram.
In this paper, we introduce a sequence of invariants of a knot K in S^3: the knot Floer homology groups of the preimage of K in the m-fold cyclic branched cover over K. We exhibit the knot Floer homology in the m-fold branched cover as the categorification of a multiple of the Turaev torsion in the case where the m-fold branched cover is a rational homology sphere. In addition, when K is a 2-bridge knot, we prove that the knot Floer homology of the lifted knot in a particular Spin^c structure in the branched double cover matches the knot Floer homology of the original knot K in S^3. We conclud…
We characterize the cyclic branched covers of the 2-sphere where every homeomorphism of the sphere lifts to a homeomorphism of the covering surface. This answers a question that appeared in an early version of the erratum of Birman and Hilden [2].
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a 4-manifold to be a branched covering of $CP^2$, $S^2\times S^2$, $S^2 \mathbin{\tilde\times} S^2$ and $S^3 \times S^1$, which are expressed in terms of the Betti numbers and the intersection form of the 4-manifold.
We consider branched coverings which are simple in the sense that any point of the target has at most one singular preimage. The cobordism classes of $k$-fold simple branched coverings between $n$-manifolds form an abelian group $Cob^1(n,k)$. Moreover, $Cob^1(*,k) = \bigoplus_{n=0}^{\infty} Cob^1(n,k)$ is a module over $Ω^{SO}_*$. We construct a universal $k$-fold simple branched covering, and use it to compute this module rationally. As a corollary, we determine the rank of the groups $Cob^1(n,k)$. In the case $n = 2$ we compute the group $Cob^1(2,k)$, give a complete set of invariants and co…
In this work we study the decomposability property of branched coverings of degree $d$ odd, over the projective plane, where the covering surface has Euler characteristic $\leq 0$. The latter condition is equivalent to say that the defect of the covering is greater than $d$. We show that, given a datum $\mathscr{D}=\{D_{1},\dots,D_{s}\}$ with an even defect greater than $d$, it is realizable by an indecomposable branched covering over the projective plane. The case when $d$ is even is known.