Homotopy versus isotopy: spheres with duals in 4-manifolds (Q2119892)

In [J. Am. Math. Soc. 33, No. 3, 609--652 (2020; Zbl 1479.57048)], \textit{D. Gabai} proved a 4-dimensional version of the light bulb theorem. This asserts that in an orientable smooth 4-manifold whose fundamental group has no 2-torsion, two smoothly embedded 2-spheres with a common geometric dual are isotopic if and only if they are homotopic. Here, the authors extend this result by relaxing the condition on the fundamental group. Namely, they show that, in any orientable smooth 4-manifold, the isotopy classes of the smoothly embedded 2-spheres belonging to a given homotopy class and sharing a common geometric dual, can be completely classified in terms of the Freedman-Quinn invariant.