Uniqueness of \(\pi_ 1\)-negligible embeddings in 4-manifolds: A correction to theorem 10.5 of Freedman and Quinn (Q1319598)

Much of this paper is a careful correction of several mistakes, some of them quite severe, in Chapter 10 of the well-known book of 4-manifolds by \textit{M. H. Freedman} and \textit{F. S. Quinn} [Topology of 4-manifolds (1990; Zbl 0705.57001)]. In this way, a complete proof is given for the classification of closed 1-connected 4-manifolds (Theorem 10.1) and a slightly weaker form of the connected sum decomposition theorem (Theorem 10.3). Due to the logical structure of Chapter 10 these corrections affect most of the major theorems in that chapter, most important of them being the \(\pi_ 1\)-negligible embedding theorem (Theorem 10.5). In the present paper the uniqueness part of this theorem was corrected, whereas the existence part appeared a little later in another paper [the author, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 120, No. 4, 1309-1314 (1994; see the review below)].