Tangent ball embeddings of sets in \(E^ 3\) (Q1094705): Difference between revisions

A 2-sphere \(\Sigma\) imbedded in 3-space is said to have double tangent balls at the point p if there exist two round 3-cells B and B' such that \(B\cap B'=\{p\}=\Sigma \cap (B\cup B')\). \textit{R. H. Bing} [Am. Math. Monthly 71, 353-364 (1964; Zbl 0116.406)] and \textit{M. K. Fort jun.} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 14, 994-995 (1963; Zbl 0121.183)] asked whether a 2-sphere having round tangent balls at each of its points must be tamely imbedded. Such a sphere must have a tangent plane at each point, but the existence even of a continuous family of tangent planes does not force tameness, nor does the existence at each point of a straight line segment piercing the sphere. However, \textit{H. G. Bothe} [Math. Nachr. 43, 161-180 (1970; Zbl 0164.539)] and the author [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 152, 389-397 (1970; Zbl 0211.558)] resolved the Bing/Fort question affirmatively. In this expository article, the author describes work of himself and others on this and similar questions of taming. For example, if there are tangent balls only on the interior side, the sphere must be tame from the exterior side, but need not be tame from the interior side. If they are of uniform size, then it is also tame from the interior side. In all higher dimensions, the answer to the analogue of the Bing/Fort question is negative. The paper concludes with a discussion of generalizations to other subsets of \(E^ 3\) and a list of some open questions.