Towers of regular self-covers and linear endomorphisms of tori (Q1746395)

The present paper is concerned with manifolds admitting a non-trivial self-covering map \(p: M\to M\), with \(\deg(p)>1\). \par Examples of such manifolds are tori \(T\cong\mathbb{R}^n/\mathbb{Z}^n\), where the map \(p\) is induced by an integral \(n\times n\) matrix \(A\) and \(\det(A)=\deg(p)\), and quotients of some simply connected nilpotent Lie groups \(N\) by a lattice \(\Gamma\) (see [\textit{I. Belegradek}, Bull. London Math. Soc. 35, 805--811 (2003; Zbl 1042.20022)]). The case of infra-nilmanifolds modelled on \(N\) was studied by \textit{J. Deré} in [Groups Geom. Dyn. 11, No. 1, 105--120 (2017; Zbl 1406.17042)]), where the existence self-covers was related with the existence of expanding maps. Other examples can be obtained by performing suitable fiber bundle constructions with fibers admitting self-covers, where the self-cover occurs along the fibers. There are only partial results about manifolds admitting a non-trivial self-cover, for example in low dimension or for algebraic maps on smooth projective varieties. \par The first result of this paper is general: the fundamental group of any CW-complex admitting a \textit{strongly regular} self-cover (i.e. all of whose iterates are regular covers) surjects onto a free abelian group \(A\) and the self-cover is induced by a linear endomorphism of \(A\). Then self-covers of closed manifolds \(M\) are considered, under the additional assumption that the asymptotic deck group is precompact in \(\mathrm{Diff}(M)\) (\textit{smoothly proper} self-covers). Up to finite covers, a closed manifold admitting a non-trivial strongly regular smoothly proper self-cover is a smooth principal torus bundle over some closed manifold. \par Combining the above structure theorem with Kähler geometry, the following theorem is obtained in the Kähler case. \par Theorem. Let \(M\) be a closed Kähler manifold and \(p: M\to M\) a non-trivial, strongly regular, holomorphic self-cover. Then there exists a finite cover \(M'\to M\) of \(M\), a complex torus \(T\) and a Kähler manifold \(N\) such that \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] \(M'\) is biholomorphic to \(T\times N\); \item[(ii)] \(p\) lifts to a smoothly proper, strongly regular self-cover \(p': M'\to M'\); \item[(iii)] \(p'\) descends to a holomorphic automorphism of \(N\cong M'/T\); \item[(iv)] on each slice \(T\times \{x\}\) with \(x\in N\), the map \(p'\) restricts to a holomorphic cover of degree \(\deg(p)\). \end{itemize} The final part of the paper is devoted to residual self-covers and expanding maps.