ON CERTAIN CLASSES OF LINKS AND 3-MANIFOLDS

We construct an infinite family of closed 3-manifolds M(2m+ 1, n, k) which are identification spaces of certain polyhedra P(2m+ 1, n, k), for integers $m\;\ge\;1,\;n\;\ge\;3,\;and\;k\;\ge\;2$. We prove that they are (n / d)- fold cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere branched over certain links $L_{(m,d)}$, where d = gcd(n, k), by handle decomposition of orbifolds. This generalizes the results in [3] and [2] as a particular case m = 2.