On Abelian coverings of surfaces (Q2470255)

The paper deals with the problem of classification of finite abelian coverings of orientable compact surfaces without boundary up to the following equivalence. Two coverings \(\pi_1 : T_1 \to S_1\) and \(\pi_2 : T_2 \to S_2\) are equivalent if there are homeomorphisms \(\varphi : S_1 \to S_2\) and \(\psi : T_1 \to T_2\) such that \(\pi_1 \circ \varphi = \psi \circ \pi_2\). The author suggests a new elegant approach to this problem reducing it to classification of triples \((L, \omega, M)\), where \(L\) is a free abelian group of a given (even) rank \(n\) (to consider \(L=\pi_1 (S) / (\pi_1(S), \pi_1(S))\)), \(\omega\) is a unimodular integer 2-form on \(L\), and \(M\) is a subgroup of finite index such that \(L / M\) is isomorphic to a given finite abelian group \(G\) (to consider \(M = \pi_1(T) / (\pi_1(S), \pi_1(S)) \subset L\)). A complete solution of the classification problem is given in the following three cases: (1) \(G \simeq (C_{p^k})^m\); (2) \(G \simeq (C_p)^{m_1} \times (C_{p^2})^{m_2}\); (3) \(g (S) = 2\).