A branch set linking theorem.
In this paper we give a short and simple proof the following theorem of S. Eilenberg and J.C. Moore: the only injective object in the category of groups is the trivial group.
These notes accompany some lectures given at the autumn school “Tresses in Pau” in October 2009. The abelian Reidemeister torsion for -manifolds, and its refinements by Turaev, are introduced. Some applications, including relations between the Reidemeister torsion and other classical invariants, are surveyed.