Asphericity of symmetric presentations. (Q2458371)

The main purpose of this paper is to give a new proof of a theorem of Prishchepov on the asphericity of certain symmetric presentations of groups. Let \[ P(r,n,k,s,q)=\langle x_1,\dots,x_n\mid\prod_{j=1}^r x_{i+(j-1)q}=\prod_{j=1}^s x_{i+k-1+(j-1)q},\;i=1,\dots,n\rangle \] be a finite presentation of a group. Prishchepov has shown that if \(r>2s>0\) or \(s>2r>0\) and \(n\) does not divide certain sums of multiples of \(A=k-1\) and \(B=k-1-(r-s)q\) then \(P(r,n,k,s,q)\) is aspherical. A new proof of this theorem is given using the notion of relative presentations of Bogley and Pride. By using relative pictures the combinatorial asphericity of the presentations in question is shown. They find dipoles in each picture of an extension of \(P(r,n,k,s,q)\) by a finite cyclic group. As a corollary it is shown that the groups satisfying the conditions of this theorem are not fundamental groups of orientable 3-manifolds but fundamental groups of certain smooth closed orientable spin 4-manifolds.