An invariant of link homotopy in dimension four (Q676987)

This paper is concerned with link maps taking two copies of \(S^2\) into \(S^4\). For such link maps Kirk has defined the full \(\sigma\)-invariant. In this paper the author defines a new link homotopy invariant for link maps with vanishing full \(\sigma\)-invariant and uses it to show that there are at least four link homotopy classes of such maps. In fact, he shows that there is a homomorphism from the kernel of \(\sigma\) onto Klein's Vierergruppe, where connected sum induces the group operation on the set of link homotopy classes.