Covering space
In topology, a covering or covering projection is a map between topological spaces that, intuitively, locally acts like a projection of multiple copies of a space onto itself. In particular, coverings are special types of local homeomorphisms. If is a covering,
is said to be a covering space or cover of
, and
is said to be the base of the covering, or simply the base. By abuse of terminology,
and
may sometimes be called covering spaces as well. Since coverings are local homeomorphisms, a covering space is a special kind of étalé space.
Covering spaces first arose in the context of complex analysis (specifically, the technique of analytic continuation), where they were introduced by Riemann as domains on which naturally multivalued complex functions become single-valued. These spaces are now called Riemann surfaces.[1]: 10
Covering spaces are an important tool in several areas of mathematics. In modern geometry, covering spaces (or branched coverings, which have slightly weaker conditions) are used in the construction of manifolds, orbifolds, and the morphisms between them. In algebraic topology, covering spaces are closely related to the fundamental group: for one, since all coverings have the homotopy lifting property, covering spaces are an important tool in the calculation of homotopy groups. A standard example in this vein is the calculation of the fundamental group of the circle by means of the covering of by
(see below).[2]: 29 Under certain conditions, covering spaces also exhibit a Galois correspondence with the subgroups of the fundamental group.
Let be a topological space. A covering of
is a continuous map
such that for every there exists an open neighborhood
of
and a discrete space
such that
and
is a homeomorphism for every
. The open sets
are called sheets, which are uniquely determined up to homeomorphism if
is connected.[2]: 56 For each
the discrete set
is called the fiber of
. If
is connected (and
is non-empty), it can be shown that
is surjective, and the cardinality of
is the same for all
; this value is called the degree of the covering. If
is path-connected, then the covering
is called a path-connected covering. This definition is equivalent to the statement that
is a locally trivial Fiber bundle.
Some authors also require that be surjective in the case that
is not connected.[3]
-
and the sheets of the covering are
for
The fiber of
is
-
-
-
.
-
Since a covering maps each of the disjoint open sets of
homeomorphically onto
it is a local homeomorphism, i.e.
is a continuous map and for every
there exists an open neighborhood
of
, such that
is a homeomorphism.
It follows that the covering space and the base space
locally share the same properties.
Let and
be path-connected, locally path-connected spaces, and
and
be continuous maps, such that the diagram
commutes.
Let and
be topological spaces and
and
be coverings, then
with
is a covering.[6]: 339 However, coverings of
are not all of this form in general.
Let be a topological space and
and
be coverings. Both coverings are called equivalent, if there exists a homeomorphism
, such that the diagram
commutes. If such a homeomorphism exists, then one calls the covering spaces and
isomorphic.
All coverings satisfy the lifting property, i.e.:
Let be the unit interval and
be a covering. Let
be a continuous map and
be a lift of
, i.e. a continuous map such that
. Then there is a uniquely determined, continuous map
for which
and which is a lift of
, i.e.
.[2]: 60
If is a path-connected space, then for
it follows that the map
is a lift of a path in
and for
it is a lift of a homotopy of paths in
.
As a consequence, one can show that the fundamental group of the unit circle is an infinite cyclic group, which is generated by the homotopy classes of the loop
with
.[2]: 29
Let be a path-connected space and
be a connected covering. Let
be any two points, which are connected by a path
, i.e.
and
. Let
be the unique lift of
, then the map
-
with
If is a path-connected space and
a connected covering, then the induced group homomorphism
-
with
,
is injective and the subgroup of
consists of the homotopy classes of loops in
, whose lifts are loops in
.[2]: 61
Let and
be Riemann surfaces, i.e. one dimensional complex manifolds, and let
be a continuous map.
is holomorphic in a point
, if for any charts
of
and
of
, with
, the map
is holomorphic.
If is holomorphic at all
, we say
is holomorphic.
The map is called the local expression of
in
.
If is a non-constant, holomorphic map between compact Riemann surfaces, then
is surjective and an open map,[5]: 11 i.e. for every open set
the image
is also open.
Let be a non-constant, holomorphic map between compact Riemann surfaces. For every
there exist charts for
and
and there exists a uniquely determined
, such that the local expression
of
in
is of the form
.[5]: 10 The number
is called the ramification index of
in
and the point
is called a ramification point if
. If
for an
, then
is unramified. The image point
of a ramification point is called a branch point.
Let be a non-constant, holomorphic map between compact Riemann surfaces. The degree
of
is the cardinality of the fiber of an unramified point
, i.e.
.
This number is well-defined, since for every the fiber
is discrete[5]: 20 and for any two unramified points
, it is:
It can be calculated by:
-
[5]: 29
A continuous map is called a branched covering, if there exists a closed set with dense complement
, such that
is a covering.
Let be a simply connected covering. If
is another simply connected covering, then there exists a uniquely determined homeomorphism
, such that the diagram
commutes.[6]: 482
This means that is, up to equivalence, uniquely determined and because of that universal property denoted as the universal covering of the space
.
A universal covering does not always exist. The following theorem guarantees its existence for a certain class of base spaces.
Let be a connected, locally simply connected topological space. Then, there exists a universal covering
The set is defined as
where
is any chosen base point. The map
is defined by
[2]: 64
The topology on is constructed as follows: Let
be a path with
Let
be a simply connected neighborhood of the endpoint
Then, for every
there is a path
inside
from
to
that is unique up to homotopy. Now consider the set
The restriction
with
is a bijection and
can be equipped with the final topology of
[further explanation needed]
The fundamental group acts freely on
by
and the orbit space
is homeomorphic to
through the map
Let G be a discrete group acting on the topological space X. This means that each element g of G is associated to a homeomorphism Hg of X onto itself, in such a way that Hg h is always equal to Hg ∘ Hh for any two elements g and h of G. (Or in other words, a group action of the group G on the space X is just a group homomorphism of the group G into the group Homeo(X) of self-homeomorphisms of X.) It is natural to ask under what conditions the projection from X to the orbit space X/G is a covering map. This is not always true since the action may have fixed points. An example for this is the cyclic group of order 2 acting on a product X × X by the twist action where the non-identity element acts by (x, y) ↦ (y, x). Thus the study of the relation between the fundamental groups of X and X/G is not so straightforward.
However the group G does act on the fundamental groupoid of X, and so the study is best handled by considering groups acting on groupoids, and the corresponding orbit groupoids. The theory for this is set down in Chapter 11 of the book Topology and groupoids referred to below. The main result is that for discontinuous actions of a group G on a Hausdorff space X which admits a universal cover, then the fundamental groupoid of the orbit space X/G is isomorphic to the orbit groupoid of the fundamental groupoid of X, i.e. the quotient of that groupoid by the action of the group G. This leads to explicit computations, for example of the fundamental group of the symmetric square of a space.
Let E and M be smooth manifolds with or without boundary. A covering is called a smooth covering if it is a smooth map and the sheets are mapped diffeomorphically onto the corresponding open subset of M. (This is in contrast to the definition of a covering, which merely requires that the sheets are mapped homeomorphically onto the corresponding open subset.)
Let be a covering. A deck transformation is a homeomorphism
, such that the diagram of continuous maps
commutes. Together with the composition of maps, the set of deck transformation forms a group , which is the same as
.
Now suppose is a covering map and
(and therefore also
) is connected and locally path connected. The action of
on each fiber is free. If this action is transitive on some fiber, then it is transitive on all fibers, and we call the cover regular (or normal or Galois). Every such regular cover is a principal
-bundle, where
is considered as a discrete topological group.
Every universal cover is regular, with deck transformation group being isomorphic to the fundamental group
.
Let be a path-connected space and
be a connected covering. Since a deck transformation
is bijective, it permutes the elements of a fiber
with
and is uniquely determined by where it sends a single point. In particular, only the identity map fixes a point in the fiber.[2]: 70 Because of this property every deck transformation defines a group action on
, i.e. let
be an open neighborhood of a
and
an open neighborhood of an
, then
is a group action.
A covering is called normal, if
. This means, that for every
and any two
there exists a deck transformation
, such that
.
Let be a path-connected space and
be a connected covering. Let
be a subgroup of
, then
is a normal covering iff
is a normal subgroup of
.
If is a normal covering and
, then
.
If is a path-connected covering and
, then
, whereby
is the normaliser of
.[2]: 71
Let be a topological space. A group
acts discontinuously on
, if every
has an open neighborhood
with
, such that for every
with
one has
.
If a group acts discontinuously on a topological space
, then the quotient map
with
is a normal covering.[2]: 72 Hereby
is the quotient space and
is the orbit of the group action.
Let be a group, which acts discontinuously on a topological space
and let
be the normal covering.
- Let
. The antipodal map
with
generates, together with the composition of maps, a group
and induces a group action
, which acts discontinuously on
. Because of
it follows, that the quotient map
is a normal covering and for
a universal covering, hence
for
.
- Let
be the special orthogonal group, then the map
is a normal covering and because of
, it is the universal covering, hence
.
- With the group action
of
on
, whereby
is the semidirect product
, one gets the universal covering
of the klein bottle
, hence
.
- Let
be the torus which is embedded in the
. Then one gets a homeomorphism
, which induces a discontinuous group action
, whereby
. It follows, that the map
is a normal covering of the klein bottle, hence
.
- Let
be embedded in the
. Since the group action
is discontinuously, whereby
are coprime, the map
is the universal covering of the lens space
, hence
.
Let be a connected and locally simply connected space, then for every subgroup
there exists a path-connected covering
with
.[2]: 66
Let and
be two path-connected coverings, then they are equivalent iff the subgroups
and
are conjugate to each other.[6]: 482
Let be a connected and locally simply connected space, then, up to equivalence between coverings, there is a bijection:
For a sequence of subgroups one gets a sequence of coverings
. For a subgroup
with index
, the covering
has degree
.
Let be a topological space. The objects of the category
are the coverings
of
and the morphisms between two coverings
and
are continuous maps
, such that the diagram
commutes.
Let be a topological group. The category
is the category of sets which are G-sets. The morphisms are G-maps
between G-sets. They satisfy the condition
for every
.
Let be a connected and locally simply connected space,
and
be the fundamental group of
. Since
defines, by lifting of paths and evaluating at the endpoint of the lift, a group action on the fiber of a covering, the functor
is an equivalence of categories.[2]: 68–70
An important practical application of covering spaces occurs in charts on SO(3), the rotation group. This group occurs widely in engineering, due to 3-dimensional rotations being heavily used in navigation, nautical engineering, and aerospace engineering, among many other uses. Topologically, SO(3) is the real projective space RP3, with fundamental group Z/2, and only (non-trivial) covering space the hypersphere S3, which is the group Spin(3), and represented by the unit quaternions. Thus quaternions are a preferred method for representing spatial rotations – see quaternions and spatial rotation.
However, it is often desirable to represent rotations by a set of three numbers, known as Euler angles (in numerous variants), both because this is conceptually simpler for someone familiar with planar rotation, and because one can build a combination of three gimbals to produce rotations in three dimensions. Topologically this corresponds to a map from the 3-torus T3 of three angles to the real projective space RP3 of rotations, and the resulting map has imperfections due to this map being unable to be a covering map. Specifically, the failure of the map to be a local homeomorphism at certain points is referred to as gimbal lock, and is demonstrated in the animation at the right – at some points (when the axes are coplanar) the rank of the map is 2, rather than 3, meaning that only 2 dimensions of rotations can be realized from that point by changing the angles. This causes problems in applications, and is formalized by the notion of a covering space.
- Bethe lattice is the universal cover of a Cayley graph
- Covering graph, a covering space for an undirected graph, and its special case the bipartite double cover
- Covering group
- Galois connection
- Quotient space (topology)
- Hatcher, Allen (2002). Algebraic topology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-79160-X. OCLC 45420394.
-
Forster, Otto (1981). Lectures on Riemann surfaces. New York. ISBN 0-387-90617-7. OCLC 7596520.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) -
Munkres, James R. (2018). Topology. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-13-468951-7. OCLC 964502066.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Kühnel, Wolfgang (2011). Matrizen und Lie-Gruppen Eine geometrische Einführung (in German). Wiesbaden: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag. doi:10.1007/978-3-8348-9905-7. ISBN 978-3-8348-9905-7. OCLC 706962685.