Dihedral branched covers of four-manifolds (Q1639634)

Every closed orientable three-manifold is a branched cover of \(S^3\) with branch set a link in \(S^3\). This can be refined to the statement that every closed orientable three-manifold is a three-fold irregular dihedral cover of \(S^3\) branched over a knot. In dimension four any orientable closed connected PL four-manifold is a simple four-fold cover of \(S^4\) branched over a locally flat PL-surface [\textit{M. Iori} and \textit{R. Piergallini}, Geom. Topol. 6, 393--401 (2002; Zbl 1021.57003)]. The situation is different when restricting to orientable surfaces. If \(Y\) is a cover of \(S^4\) branched over a closed orientable locally flat embedded surface, then the signature of \(Y\) is zero [\textit{O. Viro}, Mat. Zametki 36, No. 4, 549--557 (1984; Zbl 0488.57008)]. In the article under review, covers branched over orientable surfaces with finitely many cone singularities are considered. In this case the authors give a formula for the signature of the manifold branched over such a surface. The theorem not only holds for branched covers over the sphere but for branched covers over an closed oriented PL four-manifold \(X\). Given two four-manifolds \(X,Y\) whose intersection forms are odd, this leads to a necessary and sufficient condition for \(Y\) to be homeomorphic to an irregular dihedral \(p\)-fold cover of \(X\) branched over a surface with a two-bridge slice singularity.