A soft Oka principle for proper holomorphic embeddings of open Riemann surfaces into \((\mathbb{C}^\ast)^2\) (Q1628519)

The Oka principle holds for maps \(X \to Y\) of complex manifolds \(X\) and \(Y\), if for every continuous map \(f : X \to Y\) there exists a homotopy of continuous maps \(f_t : X \to Y\) with \(f_0 = f\) and such that \(f_1\) is a holomorphic map. This Oka principle holds in particular for \(X\) a Stein manifold and \(Y\) an Oka manifold. The soft Oka principle allows also for the smooth deformation of the Stein structure on \(X\), and applies to a wider class of manifolds, see [\textit{F. Forstnerič} and \textit{M. Slapar}, Math. Z. 256, No. 3, 615--646 (2007; Zbl 1129.32013); Math. Res. Lett. 14, No. 2, 343--357 (2007; Zbl 1134.32007)]. Usually, the (soft) Oka principle does not take into account properness or injectivity of the involved maps which is much harder to deal with. In this paper, a soft Oka principle for proper holomorphic embeddings of Riemann surfaces into \((\mathbb C^\ast)^2\) is proved: After deforming its complex structure, every open Riemann surface \(X\) can be properly holomorphically embedded in \((\mathbb C^\ast)^2\). Moreover, this embedding can be chosen to be homotopic to a given continuous map, with approximation on a holomorphically convex compact \(K \subset X\) and interpolation on a closed discrete subset \(A \subset X\). The main tool is Wold's method of ``exposing points'' [\textit{E. F. Wold}, Math. Z. 252, No. 1, 1--9 (2006; Zbl 1086.32015)]; Int. J. Math. 17, No. 8, 963--974 (2006; Zbl 1109.32013)] and ideas of \textit{A. Alarcón} and \textit{F. López} [J. Geom. Anal. 23, No. 4, 1794--1805 (2013; Zbl 1277.32008)] who applied this method for proving a similar embedding result with target \(\mathbb C^2\).