Covering spaces and \(\mathbb Q\)-gradings on Heegaard Floer homology (Q940724)

The authors describe an alternative construction for relative \(\mathbb{Q}\)-grading on the relatively graded abelian groups \(HF(Y,t)\) (defined by the Heegard Floer homology on a \(3\)-manifold \( Y\), indexed by \(Spin^c\) structures \(t\) on \(Y\)), by studying Heegard Floer homology on covering spaces. First, they explain the used covering space construction on the relative \(\mathbb{Q}\)-grading and explicitly describe how to compute the relative \(\mathbb{Q}\)-grading at the chain level. After reviewing the Ozsváth-Szabó construction of \(\widetilde{gr}\), they show that their definition of the relative \(\mathbb{Q}\)-grading agrees with the Ozsváth-Szabó definition. Some applications are made in the case of lens spaces.