On a conjecture of M. J. Dunwoody (Q2731594)

The authors prove that any closed orientable 3-manifold represented by a symmetric Heegaard diagram is homeomorphic to a cyclic covering of the 3-sphere branched over a certain knot (or link), which was conjectured by M. Dunwoody in 1995. To do that they establish connections between three combinatorial representations of closed orientable 3-manifolds: Heegaard diagrams, branched coverings and crystallizations. As a consequence they describe some classes of knots and they classify the geometric structure of their cyclic branched coverings. A table showing a partial output of a computer program which generates cyclic presentations for fundamental groups of the cyclic branched coverings of 3-bridge knots up to nine crossings is given.