Fibered orbifolds and crystallographic groups (Q986680)

A flat \(n\)-orbifold which is connected and complete, after results of \textit{J. G. Ratcliffe} [Foundations of hyperbolic manifolds. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer (2006; Zbl 1106.51009)] is the quotient \(E^n/\Gamma\) where \(\Gamma\) is a discrete group of isometries of \(E^n\). The paper under review studies when a flat \(n\)-orbifold geometrically fibers over a flat \(m\)-manifold \( B\), with generic fiber a flat \((n-m)\)-orbifold \(F\). Examples of geometric fibered orbifolds appeared in \textit{J. H. Conway, O. Delgado Friedrichs, D. H. Huson} and \textit{W. P. Thurston} [Beitr. Algebra Geom. 42, No. 2, 475--507 (2001; Zbl 0991.20036)]. The main results of the paper are: Theorem 4. Let \(N\) be a complete normal subgroup of an \(n\)-dimensional space group \(\Gamma\). Then the flat orbifold \(E^n/\Gamma\) geometrically fibers over the flat orbifold \((E^n/V)/(\Gamma/N)\) with generic fiber the flat orbifold \(V/N\), where \(V=Span(N)=Span\{a\in E^n| a+I\in N\}\), and Theorem 7. Let \(\Gamma\) be an \(n\)-dimensional space group. Suppose that the flat orbifold \(E^n/\Gamma\) geometrically fibers over a flat \(m\)-orbifold \(B\) with generic fiber a connected flat \((n-m)\)-orbifold \(F\) and fibration projection \(\eta: E^n/\Gamma \to B\). Then \(\Gamma\) has a complete normal subgroup \(N\) such that \(\eta\) is geometrically equivalent to the fibration projection determined by \(N\). The theorems above lead naturally to the classification of the normal complete subgroups of a space group and the authors prove: Theorem 3. Let \(N_1\), \(N_2\) be normal subgroups of a space group \(\Gamma\). Then \(\bar N_1=\bar N_2\) if and only if \(N_1\) and \(N_2\) are commensurable. Special attention is given to the cases when a flat \(n\)-orbifold geometrically fibers over a flat \((n-1)\)-orbifold, called a geometric Seifert fibration, and over a flat \(1\)-orbifold, called geometric Co-Seifert. The results are strong enough to recover all the geometric fibered orbifolds from Conway, Friedrichs, Huson and Thurston [loc. cit.] for space groups of dimension two and three. The authors also consider several related questions like: a) the classification of the fibrations under the relations ``isometrically equivalent'' and ``affinely equivalent'', Theorems 9 and 10, resp., b) how the orbifold \(E/\Gamma\) geometrically fibers over a \(\beta_1\)-torus where \(\beta_1\) is the first Betti number of \(\Gamma\), Theorem 14, c) the relationship between a short exact sequence of space groups \(1\to N \to \Gamma \to \Gamma/N \to 1\) and the fibration determined by \(N\), Theorem 17. The material is well organized and clearly written.