Natural central extensions of groups. (Q931864)

Summary: Given a group \(G\) and an integer \(n\geq 2\) we construct a new group \(\widetilde{\mathcal K}(G,n)\). Although this construction naturally occurs in the context of finding new invariants for complex algebraic surfaces, it is related to the theory of central extensions and the Schur multiplier. A surprising application is that Abelian groups of odd order possess naturally defined covers that can be computed from a given cover by a kind of warped Baer sum.