Simple Whitney towers, half-gropes and the Arf invariant of a knot (Q2496576)

The Arf invariant of a knot \(k\) in \(S^3\) is known to be the only finite type invariant of \(k\) up to concordance. It can be read off the Alexander polynomial. The paper gives a characterization of the Arf invariant in terms of two kinds of 4-dimensional bordisms, by ``half-gropes'' and ``Whitney towers''. The theorem is: For knots \(k_0\) and \(k_1\) in \(S^3\) the following statements are equivalent: (i) \(\text{Arf}(k_0)= \text{Arf}(k_1)\), (ii) \(k_0\) and \(k_1\) cobound a properly embedded class \(n\) half-grope in \(S^3\times I\) for all \(n\in\mathbb N\). (iii) \(k_0\) and \(k_1\) cobound a properly immersed annulus in \(S^3\times I\) admitting an order \(n\) Whitney tower of all \(n\in\mathbb{N}\). The author gives a short introduction to the techniques used to treat immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds employed in the proof and helpful references on gropes, half-gropes and Whitney towers.