Double coverings of arrangement complements and 2-torsion in Milnor fiber homology (Q2210187)

In this interesting and nicely written article the author shows, loosely speaking, that the mod 2 Betti numbers of double coverings of a complex hyperplane arrangement complement are combinatorially determined. Let \(\mathcal{A} \subset \mathbb{C}^{\ell}\) be an arrangement of \(n\) hyperplanes and we denote by \(M(\mathcal{A})\) its complement in \(\mathbb{C}^{\ell}\). Let us also denote by \(L(\mathcal{A})\) the intersection lattice of \(\mathcal{A}\). We need also the Orlik-Solomon algebra, which is denoted here by \(A_{\mathbb{Z}}^{\bullet}(\mathcal{A})\), and the Orlik-Solomon algebra, denoted here by \(A_{\mathbb{Z}}^{*}(\mathcal{A})\). Now for any abelian group \(R\) we define \(A^{*}_{R}(\mathcal{A}) := A^{*}_{\mathbb{Z}}(\mathcal{A}) \otimes_{\mathbb{Z}}R.\) Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group and recall that a group homomorphism \(w: \pi_{1}(X) \rightarrow G\) determines a finite abelian covering \(p(w): X^{w} \rightarrow X\). Since \(G\) is abelian, we have \[\mathrm{Hom}(\pi_{1}(X),G) = \mathrm{Hom}(H_{1}(X,\mathbb{Z}),G) \simeq H^{1}(X,G).\] The element \(w \in H^{1}(X,G)\) is called the characteristic class of the covering. Now we can formulate precisely the main problem of the paper under review. Problem: Let \(\mathcal{A} \subset \mathbb{C}^{\ell}\) be an arrangement. Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group and \(R\) an abelian group. Let \(w \in A^{1}_{G}(\mathcal{A}) \simeq\mathrm{Hom}(\pi_{1}(M(\mathcal{A}),G)\). Describe the cohomology groups \(H^{k}(M(\mathcal{A})^{w},R)\) in terms of \(L(\mathcal{A})\) and \(w \in A^{1}_{G}(\mathcal{A})\). The main result of the paper can be formulated as follows. Main Result: Let \(w \in A^{1}_{\mathbb{Z}_{2}}(\mathcal{A})\), \(w\neq 0\). Then the \(k\)-th mod \(2\) Betti number, \(k\geq 0\), of the double covering \(M(\mathcal{A})^{w}\) is expressed as follows: \[\overline{b_{k}}(M(\mathcal{A}^{w})) =b_{k}(M(\mathcal{A})) + \mathrm{rank}_{\mathbb{Z}_{2}}H^{k}(A^{\bullet}_{\mathbb{Z}_{2}}(\mathcal{A}), w \wedge - ).\]