Quadruple points of regular homotopies of surfaces in 3-manifolds (Q1571002)

Let \(F\) be a compact, connected surface and \(M\) be a 3-manifold. The author shows that any closed generic regular homotopy \(H_t: F \to M\) has an even number of quadruple points if \(M\) is Euclidean 3-space. The same is true for general 3-manifolds in place of Euclidean 3-space under certain assumptions. Examples are given to show that in some situations the number can be odd. Let \(GI\) denote the space of all generic immersions of the surface \(F\) into a 3-manifold \(M\). In case \(M\) is Euclidean 3-space or another 3-manifold so that closed generic homotopies have an even number of quadruple points, the author defines an invariant \(Q\) from \(GI\) into the integers mod 2 so that if \(H_t\) is a generic regular homotopy between such immersions, then \(Q(H_0) = Q(H_1)\). The author gives an explicit formula for the invariant \(Q\) for embeddings of a torus in Euclidean 3-space.