Contractible open 3-manifolds with free covering translation groups (Q1304850)

A Whitehead manifold is an irreducible, contractible, open 3-manifold not homeomorphic to \(E^3\). The author proves that a strong end sum, \(W\), of certain kinds of Whitehead manifolds along a locally finite tree, \(\Gamma\), with the property that \(W\) covers a 3-manifold \(M\), enjoys the following properties: (1) \(\pi_1(M)\) is free, (2) \(M\) is not closed, (3) if \(\Gamma\) has countably many ends, then \(\pi_1(M)\) is cyclic, (4) if \(\pi_1(M)\) has \(>1\) and \(<\infty\) ends then \(\pi_1(M)=1\), thus \(M=W\). These properties follow from the existence of a simplicial action of \(\pi_1(M)\) on \(\Gamma\) which is free on the vertices.