Non-left-orderable double branched coverings (Q1954169)

A \textit{left ordering} of a group \(G\) is a total ordering \(<_G\) of \(G\) preserved by the left action of \(G\), i.e. \(a<_G b\) implies \(g a<_G g b\) for all \(g,a,b\in G\). (Note that by convention the trivial group is considered to be non left orderable.) In this paper the author develops a method to show that the fundamental group of the double branched covering of a link is not left-orderable by introducing a new notion called a \textit{coarse presentation}. A coarse presentation is a generalization of a group presentation that also consists of a set of generators and a set of relations. The main difference is that a coarse presentation allows to include inequalities as its relations and that unlike a group presentation, a coarse presentation does not determine the whole group structure and only provides partial information about the group structure and left-orderings. For a link diagram the author constructs a special coarse presentation called a coarse Brunner's presentation, which generalizes a presentation due to \textit{A. M. Brunner} [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 6, No. 5, 599--619 (1997; Zbl 0887.57017)]. The author considers a decomposition of a link diagram as a union of algebraic tangles and unknotted strands and from such such decompositions of link diagrams coarse Brunner's presentations can be obtained. The author uses these techniques to show that many families of links have non left-orderable fundamental groups of their double branched coverings. These links include alternating links, positive knots of genus two and many non alternating links. In the last section of the paper the author discusses the connections between non left-orderable and the \(L\)-space conjecture and Heegaard Floer homology.