Abelian invariants of doubly slice links (Q2674711)

This paper studies a generalization of doubly slice knots, called \(\mu\)-doubly slice links, and gives obstructions for a given link to be \(\mu\)-doubly slice. Let \(L\) be an oriented \(n\)-component link in the 3-sphere with an ordered partition \(\bigsqcup_{i=1}^{\mu} L_i\) of the components of \(L\) into \(\mu\) sublinks. The link \(L\) is said to be \(\mu\)-doubly slice if there is a locally flat ordered oriented \(\mu\)-component unlink \(\bigsqcup_{i=1}^{\mu} S_i \subset S^4\) with \(L_i=S_i\cap S^3\), where \(S^3\) is the standard equator of \(S^4\). We note that \(\mu\)-double sliceness with \(\mu=1\) and \(\mu=n\) have been studied as weakly and strongly double sliceness respectively. The \(\mu\)-doubly slice genus of \(L\) is also defined as a generalization of that of a knot. In this paper, the authors mainly give generalizations of three known results for knots. The first known result is that the Levine-Tristram signature of a knot gives a lower bound on the doubly slice genus [\textit{P. Orson} and \textit{M. Powell}, New York J. Math. 27, 379--392 (2021; Zbl 1459.57014)]. To generalize this result, they consider the multivariable signature of \(L=\bigsqcup_{i=1}^{\mu} L_i\) as a generalization of the Levine-Tristram signature. The second known result is that the Blanchfield form of a doubly slice knot is hyperbolic [\textit{C. Kearton}, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 10, 406--408 (1975; Zbl 0305.57015)]. Under a generalization of the form to links, they prove that if \(L\) is weakly or strongly doubly slice, then its generalized Blanchfield form is also hyperbolic. The third known result is that a doubly slice knot admits a hyperbolic Seifert matrix [\textit{D. W. Sumners}, Comment. Math. Helv. 46, 240--256 (1971; Zbl 0227.57007)]. They give a generalization of this result to strongly doubly slice links. Since strongly doubly slice links are boundary links, they consider a boundary Seifert matrix and show that such a link admits a hyperbolic boundary Seifert matrix.