Groups and Manifolds from Triangulated Polyhedra

The main topic of the book is the topology and geometry of 3-manifolds with a specific focus on their algebraic invariants. Some three dimensional manifolds are constructed by a polyhedral scheme, and they are represented in different ways, as combinatorial diagrams or as branched coverings over knots or links. Motivations for this kind of studies come from different subjects: topology of 3-manifolds and knot theory are key tools in many research fields, as biology, molecular chemistry, engineering and astrophysics.