A boundary link is trivial if the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of its complement is one (Q1802969)

An \(m\)-component link \(L\) is a smooth embedding of \(m\) disjoint copies of the \(n\)-sphere into \(S^{n+2}\). It is called a boundary link if it extends to an embedding of \(m\) compact \((n+1)\)-manifolds with boundary the sphere. Denote by \(E\) the exterior \(S^{n+2}-L\) of a boundary link \(L\). The main result of the paper says that, for \(n\neq 2\), \(L\) is trivial if (and only if) \(\text{cat }E=1\). This theorem is well-known for \(m=1\), that is, if \(L\) is a knot. The proof starts from the fact that the condition \(\text{cat }E=1\) implies that \(\pi_ 1 E\) is a free group. Hence, the classical case \(n=1\) follows from the loop theorem. For \(n\geq 3\), by a result of Gutiérrez, it is sufficient to show that \(\pi_ i E=0\) for \(2\leq i\leq n-1\). This is accomplished by using splittings of \(E\) in the sense of Cappell.