On charts with two crossings II (Q1951956)

The main result is that for a chart \(\Gamma\) with at most two crossings, if the closure of the surface braid presented by \(\Gamma\) is a disjoint union of spheres, then \(\Gamma\) is a ribbon chart, and hence the closure of the surface braid is a ribbon surface (Theorem 1.2). In order to prove this result, the authors show that for \(n \geq 5\), a generalized \(2\)-minimal \(n\)-chart contains at least \(4n-10\) black vertices (Theorem 1.1). The proof is given by using the authors' results in part I [J. Math. Sci., Tokyo 17, No. 2, 217--241 (2010; Zbl 1250.57039)]. Let us review the main terms. A chart is an oriented and labeled graph in a disk satisfying certain conditions, with vertices of degree 1 (black vertices), degree 4 (crossings) and degree 6 (white vertices). The notion of a chart was introduced by \textit{S. Kamada} [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 1, No. 2, 137--160 (1992; Zbl 0763.57013)] as a method to present a surface braid in 4-space. For two charts, their presenting surface braids are equivalent if and only if the charts are C-move equivalent i.e. they are related by local modifications called C-moves; see \textit{S. Kamada} [ibid. 5, No. 4, 517--529 (1996; Zbl 0889.57011)]. A ribbon surface in 4-space is the surface bounded by an immersed handlebody \(H\) whose singularities are mutually disjoint disks such that the preimage of each disk is a union of a proper disk of \(H\) and a disk in the interior of \(H\). A ribbon surface is presented by a ribbon chart, which is a chart C-move equivalent to a chart without white vertices. A \(k\)-minimal chart is a chart whose extended complexity is minimal among its C-move equivalent charts with at most \(k\) crossings, with respect to the lexicographic order. Here, the extended complexity of a chart \(\Gamma\) is the triple \((w(\Gamma),-f(\Gamma),-b(\Gamma))\), where \(w(\Gamma)\) is the number of white vertices in \(\Gamma\), \(f(\Gamma)\) is the number of edges in \(\Gamma\) whose endpoints are black vertices, and \(b(\Gamma)\) is the number of particular areas called bigons in \(\Gamma\). A chart \(\Gamma\) with at least one white vertex is called a generalized \(n\)-chart if there exist integers \(p, q\) (\(0\leq p<q\)) with \(n=q-p\) such that the subgraph \(\Gamma_i\) of \(\Gamma\), which consists of edges of label \(i\) and their vertices, does not have white vertices for \(i \leq p\) and \(i \geq q\), but does have white vertices for \(i=p+1\) and \(q-1\).