Generalized Seifert surfaces and linking numbers (Q1183664): Difference between revisions

This paper constructs and studies some link homotopy invariants of codimension two link maps --- i.e. maps of two \((m-2)\)-dimensional spheres (or other manifolds) into \(R^ m\) with disjoint images. Using a ``desingularization'' process which replaces each component by a nearby imbedded submanifold, a new link invariant \(\delta\) is defined which lives in \(\pi_ m(S^ 3)\). This is compared to the ``classical'' \(\alpha\)-invariant which lives in the stable \((m-3)\)-stem \(\pi_{m- 3+n}(S^ n)\), \(n\) large. Although they both give the usual linking number when \(m=3\), and both have the property that they vanish when either component is imbedded, if \(m\geq 4\), it is shown, by examples, that \(\alpha\) is not always the suspension of \(\delta\). For \(m=4,5\), when any link map may be homotoped to an immersion with only double points, an explicit procedure for eliminating these double point sets gives a precise description of desingularization. This leads to a determination of \(\delta\) in terms of other link homotopy invariants \(\sigma^ \pm\), whose definitions explicitly measure the double point set of each component and its contribution to linking with other component.