How to Fold a Manifold

Abstract

Techniques for constructing codimension 2 embeddings and immersions of the 2 and 3-fold branched covers of the 3 and 4-dimensional spheres are presented. These covers are in braided form, and it is in this sense that they are folded. More precisely the composition of the embedding (or immersion) and the canonical projection induces the branched covering map. In the case of the 3-sphere, the branch locus is a knotted or linked curve in space, the 2-fold branched cover always embeds, and the 3-fold branch cover might be immersed. In the case of the 4-sphere, the branch locus is a knotted or linked orientable surface (surface knot or link), and the 2-fold branched cover is always embedded. We give an explicit embedding of the 3-fold branched cover of the 4-sphere when the branch set is the spun trefoil.