Surface links which are coverings over the standard torus (Q541298)

A surface link is a smooth oriented surface in the 4-space \(\mathbb R^4\). According to [\textit{S. Kamada}, ``A characterization of groups of closed orientable surfaces in 4-space.'' Topology 33, No.~1, 113--122 (1994; Zbl 0820.57017)], any surface link can be isotoped to a closed 2-braid, meaning a surface \(S \subset N(S^2)\) in a regular neighborhood of the standard 2-sphere \(S^2 \subset\mathbb R^4\), such that the projection \(N(S^2) \to S^2\) restricts to an \(m\)-fold branched covering \(S \to S^2\). The \(m\)-chart description of 2-braids was introduced in [\textit{S. Kamada}, ``Surfaces in \(\mathbb R^4\) of braid index three are ribbon.'' J. Knot Theory Ramifications 1, No.~2, 137--160 (1992; Zbl 0763.57013)], in terms of certain graphs in \(S^2\) with some additional data. Here, the notion of torus-covering surface link is introduced as a variation of that of a closed 2-braid, where the role of \(S^2\) is played by the standard torus \(T^2 \subset\mathbb R^4\). Namely, a torus-covering surface link is an oriented surface \(S \subset N(T^2)\) in a regular neighborhood of \(T^2\), such that the projection \(N(T^2) \to T^2\) restricts to an \(m\)-fold branched covering \(S \to T^2\). Torus-covering surface links are described by \(m\)-charts in \(T^2\). In particular, the paper focuses on the case when \(S\) is a \(T^2\)-link, that is all its components are tori. In this case, the covering \(S \to T^2\) is unbranched and \(S\) is uniquely determined by the pair of commuting classical \(m\)-braids obtained by lifting the standard longitude and meridian of \(T^2\). Actually, any pair \((a,b)\) of commuting \(m\)-braids determines a torus-covering \(T^2\)-link denoted by \(\mathcal S_m(a,b)\). For example, spun (resp. turned spun, symmetry-spun) \(T^2\)-links have the form \(\mathcal S_m(b,e)\) (resp. \(\mathcal S_m(b,b)\), \(\mathcal S_m(b^n,b^k)\)) for some \(m\)-braid \(b\). The main results concern the family of torus-covering \(T^2\)-links \(\mathcal S_4(\sigma_1 \sigma_3, \Delta^l)\) where \(\Delta\) is the half-twist on 4 strands and \(l \geq 1\). These are shown to be ribbon and to be non-equivalent to each other (\(\mathcal S_4(\sigma_1 \sigma_3, \Delta)\) is trivial). Moreover, their link groups are shown to be not classical link groups for \(l > 1\) (and also not \(S^2\)-link groups for \(l\) even). The last section of the paper is devoted to the computation of the quandle cocycle invariants of \(\mathcal S_m(b, \Delta^{2n})\).