Boundary theta curves in \(S^3\) (Q2566555)

A spatial theta curve is an embedding of the graph with two labelled vertices and three labelled edges each of which joins these vertices into the \(3\)-sphere. The paper under review investigates the set of cobordism classes of spatial theta curves from an algebraic viewpoint. It is known that the set of cobordism classes of spatial theta curves forms a group \(\Theta\) under the vertex-connected sum [\textit{K. Taniyama}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 113, No. 1, 97--106 (1993; Zbl 0783.57003)], and this group is not abelian [\textit{K. Miyazaki}, Tokyo J. Math. 17, No. 1, 165--169 (1994; Zbl 0823.57008)]. The author describes the group of cobordism classes of \(2\)-string links \(C_{1,2}\) [see his paper J. Knot Theory Ramifications 8, No. 7, 855--878 (1999; Zbl 0988.57007)] by a split group extension of \(\Theta\) with the group of pure braids in \(2\) strings as the kernel. As a corollary it is shown that \(C_{1,2}\) is not abelian. Furthermore, the author studies the boundary cobordism classes of boundary theta curves. Here a boundary theta curve is a spatial theta curve two of whose constituent knots bound Seifert surfaces simultaneously such that the interiors of these surfaces are mutually disjoint. (Independently, the notion of boundary spatial embeddings of a graph was introduced by the reviewer and \textit{R. Shinjo} [Q. J. Math. 56, No. 2, 239--249 (2005; Zbl 1079.05028)].) The author shows that there exists an isomorphism from the group of boundary cobordism classes of boundary \(2\)-string links to the group of boundary cobordism classes of boundary theta curves.