Fundamental groups of three-dimensional small covers (Q2095471)

A small cover \(\pi\colon M\rightarrow P\) over a simple \(n\)-dimensional polytope \(P\) is a closed \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) with a locally standard \(\mathbb{Z}_2^n\)-action such that the orbit space \(M/\mathbb{Z}_2^n\) is diffeomorphic to \(P\) as a manifold with corners. An action is locally standard if every point \(p\in M\) has an invariant neighborhood which is weakly equivariantly diffeomorphic to some invariant open set in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with the standard action of \(\mathbb{Z}_2^n\) generated by reflections in coordinate hyperplanes. In the paper the authors describe a procedure for finding an optimal (with the minimal number of generators) presentation of the fundamental group \(\pi_1(M)\) of an orientable three-dimensional small cover \(\pi\colon M\rightarrow P\), which is balanced as well. The method is based on the Morse-theoretic approach. The construction of the paper is as follows: Following an introduction the authors recall some basic definitions and properties of three-dimensional small covers in Section 2 and review some basic facts about Haken manifolds and Heegaard splittings in Section 3. They show how Wu and Yu's [\textit{L. Wu} and \textit{L. Yu}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 2021, No. 10, 7262--7298 (2021; Zbl 1501.57030)] presentation of the fundamental group \(\pi_1(M)\) of a small cover \(\pi\colon M\rightarrow P\) in dimension 3 is easily read off the canonical Heegaard splitting associated to the characteristic pair of \(M\). Section 4 describes a method for finding an optimal and balanced presentation of the fundamental group of an orientable three-dimensional small cover based on the Morse-theoretic approach. Section 5 provides some examples, including the dodecahedral space and the permutohedral space; and Section 6 yields the problem of finding a minimal Heegaard splitting of an orientable three-dimensional small cover.