Embeddings in the 3/4 range (Q2568995)

For a smooth manifold \(M\) of dimension \(m\), we denote the space of embeddings of \(M\) into \(\mathbb R^n\) by \(\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\). In this article, the author studies the obstruction to turning an immersion into an embedding, along the lines of \textit{T. G. Goodwillie} and \textit{M. Weiss} [Geom. Topol. 3, 67--101 (1999; Zbl 0927.57027), ibid. 103--118 (1999; Zbl 0927.57028)]. There, the authors constructed a sequence of spaces \(T_k\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)(k\geq 1)\) with maps \(T_{k+1}\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\to T_{k}\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\), called the Taylor tower. For this tower, there exists a natural map \(\eta_k:\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\to T_k\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\), which is \((k(n-m-2)+1-m)\)-connected. The following facts are known: \(T_1\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\simeq \text{Imm}(M,\mathbb R^n)\) and \[ T_2\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\simeq \text{ivmap}^{\Sigma_2}(M\times M,\mathbb R^n). \] Here, \(\Sigma_2\) acts on \(M\times M\) by interchanging elements and on \(\mathbb R^n\) by the antipodal map. The author construct unique obstructions to lifting an immersion \(f\) \((\in T_1\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n))\) to \(T_2\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\) (Theorem 5), and to lifting a \(\Sigma_2\)-isovariant map \(F:M\times M\to \mathbb R^n\) \((\in T_2\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\)) to \(T_3\text{Emb}(M,\mathbb R^n)\) (Theorem 6). This implies (Corollary 31) that if \(3n-4m-5\geq 0\) then the vanishing of both obstructions for an immersion \(f:M\to \mathbb R^n\) means the existence of an embedding of \(M\) into \(\mathbb R^n\) within the regular homotopy class of \(f\).