The minimal number of roots of surface mappings and quadratic equations in free groups (Q5932126)

Let \(S,S'\) be closed orientable surfaces and \(c\in S'\) and let \(f:S\to S'\) be a mapping of non-zero degree. The root number \(\rho(f)\) is defined to be the minimal cardinality of \(\{x\in S\mid g(x)=c\}\) where \(g\) varies over all maps \(g:S\to S'\) which are homotopic to \(f\). The authors give a detailed and extremely careful proof that \(\rho(f)=\max\{\ell(f)\), \(|\deg(f)|-(|\deg(f)|\chi(S')-\chi(S))\}\) where \(\ell(f)\) is the index of \(f_{\#}(\pi_1(S))\) in \(\pi_1(S')\). It is not very difficult to prove that \(\rho(f)\leq\ell(f)\) \{in this context ``Proposition 3.3'' in the first sentence of section 4 should be replaced with ``Proposition 3.1''.\} The proof of \(\rho(f)\geq|\deg(f)|-(|\deg(f)|\chi(S')-\chi(S))\) is based on Kneser's theorem [\textit{H. Zieschang, E. Vogt} and \textit{H. D. Coldewey}, Surfaces and planar discontinuous groups, Lect. Notes Math. 835 (1980; Zbl 0438.57001)] and a forthcoming article of the second and third authors [Math. Z. 237, No. 1, 1-29 (2001; Zbl 0983.55003), see below]. The most laborious part of the proof deals with the reverse inequality. The idea of the proof is to construct a mapping \(g:S\to S'\) such that \(d:=\deg(g)=|\deg(f)|\), \(g_{\#}(\pi_1(S))=f_{\#}(\pi_1(S))\) and such that \(g\) has precisely one branch point \(c\) with precisely \(d-(d\chi(S')-\chi(S))\) preimage points. This in turn is achieved by studying representations of the fundamental group of the complement of the branch set in \(S'\) in the symmetric group on \(d\) letters. There is also a geometric construction of the branched cover mentioned above and an explanation of how the coincidence set of two mappings \(f_1,f_2:S\to S'\) can be analyzed in terms of equations in the 2-braid group \(\pi_1(S\times S'\smallsetminus\Delta)\) of \(S'\). This in turn is applied to certain quadratic equations in free groups. In the reviewer's opinion this clear and careful exposition of an extremely difficult problem constitutes an admirable piece of work.