Isotopy invariants for smooth tori in 4-manifolds (Q5956086)

The author uses refined Cerf theory to define two invariants under isotopy of closed braids in \(M = F \times R \times S^1,\) where \(F\) is an orientable, non-simply connected surface. A closed braid is a smooth embedding of a torus \(T\) into \(M\) so that the composition with projection \(p:M \to S^1\) onto the \(S^1\) factor is a submersion. If \(T_s = T \cap p^{-1}(s),\) then the knot type of \(T_s\) is shown to be invariant under smooth isotopy. The other invariant is a generalization of the unique invariant \(W_K\) of degree 1 for classical knots in 3-manifolds which was previously studied by the author in [Topology 32, No. 2, 281-294 (1993; Zbl 0787.57007)]. It is a mapping \(W_T: H_1(F)\smallsetminus \{0,[T_s]\} \to H_1(M) \simeq H_1(F)\oplus H_1(S^1).\) Invariance of \(T_s\) under smooth isotopy is used to prove the invariance of \(W_T\) under smooth isotopy. He uses his invariant \(W_T\) to construct for fixed \(T_s \subset (R^2 \smallsetminus \{0\}) \times R\) an infinite family \(T(n,T_s)\) of closed braids that are pairwise diffeomorphic but not pairwise smoothly isotopic.