The combinatorics of some tetrahedron manifolds (Q2570114)

A tetrahedron manifold is a closed connected orientable 3-manifold obtained by suitable identifications on the faces of a standard tetrahedron. In the paper under review, the author constructs an infinite class of tetrahedron manifolds \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\). These manifolds depend on positive integers \(m\), \(n\), \(p\), \(q\) and \(k\), with relatively prime \(m\) and \(p\) (respectively, \(n\) and \(q\)), satisfying the inequalities \(m\geq n\geq 3\), \(m > 2p\), \(n > 2q\) and \(k\geq 2\). In the case that \(p=q=1\) and \(k=2\), such manifolds were introduced and studied first by \textit{E.~Molnár} [Note Mat. 10, No.2, 335-346 (1990; Zbl 0770.57006)], and described afterwards by \textit{L.~Grasselli} and \textit{S.~Piccarreta} [Discrete Math. 182, No.1-3, 125-137 (1998; Zbl 0888.57018)] using crystallized structures representing these manifolds by means of edge-colored graphs. The author shows that the manifold \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\) admits a spine corresponding to the group presentation \(\langle x,y : x^{m-p}y^{-q}(x^{-p}y^{-q})^{k-1} = 1, y^{n-q}x^{-p}(y^{-q}x^{-p})^{k-1} = 1 \rangle\). This presentation represents also the fundamental group \(\pi_1(M(m,p;n,q;k))\) and is equivalent to \(\langle x,y : x^m = (x^py^q)^k = y^n \rangle\). Both these presentations are geometric, and in fact, the second one arises from a Heegaard diagram of genus \(2\) Heegaard splitting of \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\). The author completely classifies the topological structures of the considered manifolds in terms of Seifert fibred spaces. Namely, each such manifold is homeomorphic to the Seifert fibred 3-manifold defined by the Seifert invariants \((Oo; 0 : -1; (m,p), (n,q), (k,k-1))\). In particular, this implies that \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\) is a 2-fold covering of the 3-sphere branched over a certain Montesinos link. According to the classification of \textit{P.~Scott} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 15, 401-487 (1983; Zbl 0561.57001)] it is known that every Seifert fibred 3-manifold admits a geometric structure, and that the geometry involved is unique and can be determined from the two invariants \(e\) (the Euler number of the Seifert fibre bundle) and \(\chi\) (the Euler number of the base orbifold). Since in the considered case \(e = 1/k -p/m-q/m\) and \(\chi = 1/m + 1/n +1/k -1\), the author completely describes all possible geometric structures on the tetrahedron manifolds \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\). Furthermore, a representation of \(M(m,p;n,q;k)\) as a 2-fold covering of the lens space \(L(| m-2pk| ,p)\) branched over a genus one 1-bridge knot is constructed. If \(| m-2pk| =1\), in some cases, this construction gives examples of non-equivalent knots (certain torus knots and Montesinos knots) with the same tetrahedron manifold as 2-fold branched covering space of the 3-sphere.