$(n,m)$-Fold Covers of Spheres

Abstract

A well known consequence of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem is that if the $d$-dimensional sphere $S^d$ is covered with less than $d+2$ open sets, then there is a set containing a pair of antipodal points. In this paper we provide lower and upper bounds on the minimum number of open sets, not containing a pair of antipodal points, needed to cover the $d$-dimensional sphere $n$ times, with the additional property that the northern hemisphere is covered $m > n$ times. We prove that if the open northern hemisphere is to be covered $m$ times then at least $ \lceil \frac{d-1}{2} \rceil+n+m$ and at most $d+n+m$ sets are needed. For the case of $n=1$ and $d \ge 2$, this number is equal to $d+2$ if $m \le \lfloor \frac{d}{2} \rfloor + 1$ and equal to $ \lfloor \frac{d-1}{2} \rfloor + 2 +m$ if $m > \lfloor \frac{d}{2} \rfloor + 1$. If the closed northern hemisphere is to be covered $m$ times then $d+2m-1$ sets are needed, this number is also sufficient. We also present results on a related problem of independent interest. We prove that if $S^d$ is covered $n$ times with open sets, not containing a pair of antipodal points, then there exists a point that is covered at least $ \lceil \frac{d}{2} \rceil +n$ times. Furthermore, we show that there are covers in which no point is covered more than $n+d$ times.