An invariant of manifold pairs and its applications (Q917096)

The author considers the monoid of oriented diffeomorphism classes of manifold pairs (M,F), where \(F^ n\subset M^ m\) are closed, connected and oriented, m-n\(\geq 3\) and \(n\geq 5\). A signature homomorphism \(\ell: {\bar \Gamma}^{m,n}\to Q\) is defined, where \(\Gamma^{m,n}\) is a certain family of classes of pairs as above restricted by several algebraic topological conditions, and \({\bar \Gamma}{}^{m,n}\) consists of classes of those pairs for which a multiple (under connected sum) is in \(\Gamma^{m,n}\). The author proves the following properties: a) \(\ell\) is additive with respect to connected sums. b) \(\ell\) extends the knot signature defined on the abelian group \(\theta^{m,n}\) of h-cobordism classes of pairs \((S^ m,K)\) for homotopy spheres K. Three applications are given: 1) The group \(I(M,F)=\{(S^ m,K)|\) (M,F){\#}(S\({}^ m,K)\cong (M,F)\}\) is finite for (M,F)\(\in {\bar \Gamma}^{n,m}\), but there is an example of a pair with I(M,F) infinite. This shows in particular that \(\ell\) satisfying a), b) cannot be defined for all pairs. 2) Splittings of Levine's exact sequence \[ 0\quad \to \quad {\mathbb{Z}}\quad \to \quad \theta^{m,n}\quad \to \quad \pi_ n(G_{n-m},So_{n- m})\quad \to \quad o \] for \(n+1\equiv o(4)\) are discussed. 3) Examples of L-equivalence classes of triples (\(\Sigma\),T,F) are discussed, where T is an involution on a homotopy sphere \(\Sigma^ m\) with oriented fixed point set \(F^ n\). Infinite order elements are detected by the signature \(\ell\).