Extending isotopies of planar continua (Q624928)

The paper treats the isotopy extension problem for planar continua, i.e. if \(Z\) is a continuum in the complex plane \(\mathbb{C}\) and \(h^t:Z\to \mathbb{C}, t\in [0,1]\) an isotopy starting at the identity, can \(h^t\) be extended to an isotopy of the plane starting at the identity? In order to solve this question the authors consider the plane as a subset of the complex sphere \(\mathbb{C^*} = \mathbb{C} \cup \{\infty\}\). Using known results related to \(\mathbb{C^*},\) improving and adapting appropriate techniques, in Theorem 7.3 of the paper they obtain: Suppose that \(h^t:Z\to \mathbb{C}\) is an isotopy of a planar continuum \(Z\), which we consider as a subset of the sphere \(\mathbb{C^*}\) with \(h^0= id|Z\). Then there exists an extension to an isotopy \(H^t:\mathbb{C^*}\to \mathbb{C^*}\) such that \(H^0=id|\mathbb{C^*}.\) To return to the plane \(\mathbb{C}\) let \(U\) denote the component of \(\mathbb{C^*} \setminus Z\) containing the point at infinity. By composing the isotopy \(H^t\) with an isotopy \(K^t\) of the sphere such that \(K^0=id|\mathbb{C^*}\) and \(K^t|\mathbb{C^*}\setminus U=id|\mathbb{C^*}\setminus U,\) and \(K^t(H^t(\infty))=\infty\) for all \(t\in [0,1]\) one obtains: Suppose that \(h^t:Z\to \mathbb{C}\) is an isotopy of a planar continuum \(Z\subset \mathbb{C}\) with \(h^0= id|Z\). Then there exists an extension to an isotopy \(H^t:\mathbb{C}\to \mathbb{C}\) such that \(H^0=id|\mathbb{C}.\)