Circular-orderability of 3-manifold groups (Q6971674)

The subject of the paper is circular orderability of \(3\)-manifold groups. This paper contains many useful facts, construction techniques and tools on circular ordering.\N\NFor a group \(G\), a left-circular ordering is a map \(c\colon G^3 \to \{0,\pm 1\}\) satisfying three conditions: (1) \(c(g_1,g_2,g_3)=0\) if and only if \(\{g_1,g_2,g_3\}\) are not all distinct; (2) For any \(g_1,g_2,g_3,g_4\) in \(G\), \(c(g_1,g_2,g_3)-c(g_1,g_2,g_4)+c(g_1,g_3,g_4)-c(g_2,g_3,g_4)=0\); (3) For any \(g,g_1,g_2,g_3\) in \(G\), \(c(gg_1,gg_2,gg_3)=c(g_1,g_2,g_3)\). If \(G\) admits such a map, then \(G\) is said to be circularly orderable. This notion is known to give a broader class than left orderable groups. A finite groups is circularly orderable if and only if it is cyclic.\N\NThe first result of the paper proves that for a compact, connected, \(\mathbb{P}^2\)-irreducible \(3\)-manifold, \(\pi_1(M)\) is circularly orderable if and only if \(M\) admits a finite cyclic cover with left-orderable fundamental group. The second result claims that for a compact, connected Seifert fibered space, \(\pi_1(M)\) is circularly orderable whenever it is infinite. Also, the fundamental group of a compact, connected Sol manifold is shown to be circularly orderable. Further, graph manifolds are examined, and the authors show that for a graph manifold \(W\), under a certain condition, \(\pi_1(W)\) is circularly orderable if \(\pi_1(W)\) is infinite.\N\NThe last part of the paper discusses the fundamental groups of cyclic branched covers of knots and links. For example, for the trefoil knot, only \(d=2\) and \(d\ge 6\) are possible covering degrees such that the \(d\)-fold cyclic branched cover of the trefoil has circularly orderable fundamental group.