Completeness of Reidemeister-type moves for surfaces embedded in three-dimensional space (Q2428060)

The proof of the following theorem is given: there exists a finite set of elementary moves (i.e. local topological changes) on labelled apparent contours such that two generic embeddings in \(\mathbb R^3\) of a closed surface are isotopic if and only if their apparent contours can be connected using only smooth planar isotopies and a finite sequence of moves. This result can be obtained as a by-product of general results on knotted surfaces and singularity theory, but here it is obtained with a direct and rather elementary proof.