Link concordance invariants and homotopy theory (Q1098456)

This paper is concerned with the link invariants defined by K. Orr for codimension two links in the \((n+2)\)-sphere. It is shown here that for spherical links almost all of these invariants vanish if \(n>1\), and that for \(n=1\) they are zero if and only if Milnor's \({\bar \mu}\)-invariants vanish (a result which the author points out was obtained earlier by Orr himself). There is some discussion of Orr's \(\omega\)-invariant, which is the invariant not covered by the paragraph above, and some sufficient conditions are given for it to vanish.