The Homology of Abelian Covers of Knotted Graphs

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-1999-046-7
Canad. J. Math. 51(1999), 1035-1072

  Published:1999-10-01
 Printed: Oct 1999

Let $\tilde M$ be a regular branched cover of a homology 3-sphere $M$ with deck group $G\cong \zt^d$ and branch set a trivalent graph $\Gamma$; such a cover is determined by a coloring of the edges of $\Gamma$ with elements of $G$. For each index-2 subgroup $H$ of $G$, $M_H = \tilde M/H$ is a double branched cover of $M$. Sakuma has proved that $H_1(\tilde M)$ is isomorphic, modulo 2-torsion, to $\bigoplus_H H_1(M_H)$, and has shown that $H_1(\tilde M)$ is determined up to isomorphism by $\bigoplus_H H_1(M_H)$ in certain cases; specifically, when $d=2$ and the coloring is such that the branch set of each cover $M_H\to M$ is connected, and when $d=3$ and $\Gamma$ is the complete graph $K_4$. We prove this for a larger class of coverings: when $d=2$, for any coloring of a connected graph; when $d=3$ or $4$, for an infinite class of colored graphs; and when $d=5$, for a single coloring of the Petersen graph.