Crossing distances of surface-knots (Q876551)

In [Ill. J. Math. 26, 591--631 (1982; Zbl 0476.57009)], \textit{C. Giller} introduced a notion of crossing change for a diagram of a surface in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\), where a diagram is the image of the projection from \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) to \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\). If a surface \(F\) with genus \(g\) embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) can be unknotted only by crossing changes along closed double curves on a diagram, then \(d_{2}(F,\mathbb{F}_{g})\) denotes the minimal number of crossing changes that change \(F\) into a surface \(\mathbb{F}_{g}\) of genus \(g\) trivially embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\). Note that not all surfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) can be unknotted in this way. On the other hand, it is well known that any embedded surface \(G\) in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) can be unknotted by adding \(1\)-handles [\textit{F. Hosokawa} and \textit{A. Kawauchi}, Osaka J. Math. 16, 233--248 (1979; Zbl 0404.57020)]. The minimal number of such \(1\)-handles is denoted by \(u(G)\). Now let us consider a diagram of a surface \(F\) of genus \(g\) embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{4}\) such that crossing changes along (not necessarily simple) closed double curves \(\{c_{1},c_{2},\dots,c_{n}\}\) give a trivial surface, and that \(n\) is the minimal number of such curves, that is, \(n=d_{2}(F,\mathbb{F}_{g})\). In the paper under review the author proves the inequality: \(u(F)\leq d_{2}(F,\mathbb{F}_{g})+\ell\), where \(\ell\) is the number of non-simple curves in \(\{c_{1},c_{2},\dots,c_{n}\}\).