Covering theory for complexes of groups

Abstract

We develop an explicit covering theory for complexes of groups, parallel to that developed for graphs of groups by Bass. Given a covering of developable complexes of groups, we construct the induced monomorphism of fundamental groups and isometry of universal covers. We characterize faithful complexes of groups and prove a conjugacy theorem for groups acting freely on polyhedral complexes. We also define an equivalence relation on coverings of complexes of groups, which allows us to construct a bijection between such equivalence classes, and subgroups or overgroups of a fixed lattice $\Gamma$ in the automorphism group of a locally finite polyhedral complex $X$.Comment: 47 pages, 1 figure. Comprises Sections 1-4 of previous submission. New introduction. To appear in J. Pure Appl. Algebr