On the Wu invariants for immersions of a graph into the plane (Q2267730)

Let \(G\) be a finite graph and consider a plane immersion of \(G\), i.e. a continuous map \(f: G \to \mathbb{R}^2\) such that there exists an open covering \(\{U_ {\nu}\}\) of \(G\) and \(f|_{U_{\nu}}\) is an embedding for any \(\nu\). A plane immersion \(f\) of \(G\) is generic if all of its multipoints are transversal double points away from the vertices. \textit{W. T. Wu} defined in [A theory of imbedding, immersion, and isotopy of polytopes in a Euclidean space. Peking: Science Press (1965; Zbl 0177.26402)] a local isotopy class, which is a regular homotopy invariant. In this paper, the author gives a precise formulation of this invariant in the case of a plane immersion \(f: G \to \mathbb{R}^2\) of a graph \(G\). It is denoted by \(\mathcal{R}(f)\) and called the Wu invariant of \(f\). An explicit calculation of \(\mathcal{R}(f)\) is presented and it is used to prove a classification theorem of generic immersions of a graph into the plane up to regular homotopy and also applied to a geometric classification.