Inherited asphericity, links and identities among relations (Q1175209)

\textit{J. H. C. Whitehead} posed a famous question [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 42, 409-428 (1941; Zbl 0027.26404)]: Is every subcomplex of an aspherical 2-complex aspherical? What is now called the Whitehead conjecture is that the answer to this question is positive. The current paper makes some steps in this direction using methods of Whitehead [loc. cit.] and others exposed by the reviewer and \textit{J. Huebschmann} [Low-dimensional topology, Proc. Conf., Bangor, 1979, Vol. 1, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 48, 153-202 (1982; Zbl 0485.57001)] and by \textit{P. Stefan} [ibid., 203-213 (1982; Zbl 0485.57002)]. A general position map \(f: B^ 3\to L\), where \(L\) is a 2-complex, is considered. The inverse image under \(f\) of the mid points of the 2-cells of \(L\) is called an inverse line (it may include intervals). Examples and results are given on when such links arise from identities among relations.