Related papers: Constructing Simplicial Branched Covers

We show that, given $d \geq 4$ and two closed connected oriented PL $4$-manifolds $M$ and $N$ such that $N$ has a handle decomposition with no $1$- and $3$-handles, there exists a $d$-fold simple branched covering $p \colon M \darrow{d} N$…

We provide new branched covering representations for bounded and/or non-compact 4-manifolds, which extend the known ones for closed 4-manifolds. Assuming $M$ to be a connected oriented PL 4-manifold, our main results are the following: (1)…

We construct branched double coverings by certain direct products of manifolds for connected sums of copies of sphere bundles over the 2-sphere. As an application we answer a question of Kotschick and Loeh up to dimension five. More…

Every closed oriented PL 4-manifold is a branched cover of the 4-sphere branched over a PL-surface with finitely many singularities by Piergallini [Topology 34(3):497-508, 1995]. This generalizes a long standing result by Hilden and…

Techniques for constructing codimension 2 embeddings and immersions of the 2 and 3-fold branched covers of the 3 and 4-dimensional spheres are presented. These covers are in braided form, and it is in this sense that they are folded. More…

We show that every closed connected non-orientable PL $4$-manifold $X$ is a simple branched covering of $\RP^4$. We also show that $X$ is a simple branched covering of the twisted $S^3$-bundle $S^1 \simtimes S^3$ if and only if the first…

A canonical branched covering over each sufficiently good simplicial complex is constructed. Its structure depends on the combinatorial type of the complex. In this way, each closed orientable 3-manifold arises as a branched covering over…

Given a closed oriented PL four-manifold $X$ and a closed surface $B$ embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities, we give a formula for the signature of an irregular dihedral cover of $X$ branched along $B$. For $X$ simply-connected,…

One method for obtaining every closed orientable 3-manifold is as branched covering of the 3-sphere over a link. There is a classical topological result showing that the minimun possible number of sheets in the covering is three. In this…

We study $d$-dimensional simplicial complexes that are PL embeddable in $\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$. It is shown that such a complex must satisfy a certain homological condition. The existence of this obstruction allows us to provide a systematic…

Classes of branched surfaces extend the classes of surfaces or 2-dimensional manifolds satisfying suitable properties and defined in various manners. Reeb spaces of smooth maps of suitable classes into surfaces whose codimensions are…

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…

For $m=2$ and $m=3$ we prove that any connected, oriented, open manifold $M^m$ admits a simple branched covering map over $\mathbb{R}^m$. When $M$ has $k$ ends and $k$ is finite, the degree of the cover can be taken to be $mk$. Regardless…

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…

The topology of symplectic 4-manifolds is related to that of singular plane curves via the concept of branched covers. Thus, various classification problems concerning symplectic 4-manifolds can be reformulated as questions about singular…

Piecewise Euclidean structures (identified solid Euclidean polyhedra) on topological 3-dimensional manifolds and pseudo-manifolds are constructed so that they admit pseudo-foliations, a generalized type of foliation. The construction of…

Simplicial complexes are increasingly used to understand the topology of complex systems as different as brain networks and social interactions. It is therefore of special interest to extend the study of percolation to simplicial complexes.…

The image of the branch set of a PL branched cover between PL $n$-manifolds is a simplicial $(n-2)$-complex. We demonstrate that the reverse implication also holds: an open and discrete map $f \colon \mathbb{S}^n \to \mathbb{S}^n$ with the…

We prove the long-standing Montesinos conjecture that any closed oriented PL 4-manifold M is a simple covering of S^4 branched over a locally flat surface (cf [J M Montesinos, 4-manifolds, 3-fold covering spaces and ribbons, Trans. Amer.…

We study branched covering spaces in several contexts, proving that under suitable circumstances the cover satisfies the same upper curvature bounds as the base space. The first context is of a branched cover of an arbitrary metric space…