Differential 3-knots in 5-space with and without self-intersections (Q1591434)

The set of regular homotopy classes of immersions of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^5\) is denoted by \(\mathbf{Imm}\). \textit{S. Smale} [Ann. Math. (2) 69, 327-344 (1959; Zbl 0089.18201)] proved that there exists a bijection \(\Omega:\mathbf{Imm}\to Z\), the infinite cyclic group. The connected sum of immersions, defined by \textit{M. A. Kervaire}, induces a group structure on \(\mathbf{Imm}\) and makes the bijection \(\Omega\), mentioned above, an isomorphism [Comment. Math. Helv. 33, 121-131 (1959; Zbl 0089.18202)]. Smale suggested the following problems: (1) Find explicit representatives of regular homotopy classes of immersions. (2) What regular homotopy classes have an embedding for a representative? The author studies these two problems. As for the first problem (1), the author constructs immersions \(f_{\frac{1}{2}m}:S^3\to \mathbb{R}^5\) \((m\in Z)\) and shows that \(f_{\frac{1}{2}m}\) represents \(\Omega^{-1}(m)\in\mathbf{Imm}\) (Proposition 8.3.1). The set \(\mathbf{Emb}\) denotes the subgroup of \(\mathbf{Imm}\), each class of which contains embeddings. \textit{J. F. Hughes} and \textit{P. M. Melvin} proved that \(\mathbf{Emb}\) is of index 24 [Comment. Math. Helv. 60, 615-627 (1985; Zbl 0586.57017)]. The author defines two regular homotopy invariants \(\lambda\in Z_3\) (in \S 6) and \(\beta\in Z_8\) (in \S 8) for immersions of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^5\) geometrically, and solves the second problem (2) in Theorem 1 as follows: \(\lambda \oplus\beta:\mathbf{Imm}\to Z_3\oplus Z_8\) is an epimorphism and \(\xi\in\mathbf{Imm}\) has an embedding if and only if both \(\lambda(\xi)=0\) and \(\beta (\xi)=0\) hold. During the study of Smale's problem, the author constructs two linearly independent first order invariants \(J\) and \(L\) of generic immersions of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^5\), which are similar to those on curves introduced by \textit{V. I. Arnold} [Adv. Sov. Math. 21, 33-91 (1994; Zbl 0864.57027)], and proves in Theorem 2 that any first order invariant is a linear combination of \(J\) and \(L\) on each path component of the space of immersions of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^5\). Moreover, the author gets some interesting results (Theorems 3-5), which are called by-products by the author, of generic immersions of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^4\). For example, a generic immersion of \(S^3\) into \(\mathbb{R}^4\) has an odd number of quadruple points if and only if its (resolved) self-intersection surface has odd Euler characteristic.