Pseudo-isotopy classes of diffeomorphisms of the unknotted pairs \((S^{n+2},S^n)\) and \((S^{2p+2},S^p\times S^p)\) (Q938629)

Let \(M^n \subset S^{n+2}\) be a closed oriented smooth \(n\)-manifold, i.e. \((S^{n+2},M^n)\) is an \(M^n\)-knot. Consider the group of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms Diff(\(M^n\)) of \(M^n\). The set of pseudo-isotopy classes of Diff(\(M^n\)) form a group, denoted \(\pi_0\)Diff(\(M^n\)), which is called the mapping class group of \(M^n\). A general question related to a given \(M^n\)-knot that is treated in the paper asks which elements of the mapping class group \(\pi_0\)Diff(\(M^n\)) have representatives that extend to orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of the ambient sphere \(S^{n+2}\)? The isotopy extension theorem implies that if an element of the isotopy class extends, then all elements of that class extend. By application of the disk theorem we can always assume that the extension is isotopic to the identity of \(S^{n+2}\). Using this the author defines the following subgroup of \(\pi_0\)Diff(\(M^n\)): \[ E(S^{n+2},M^n):= \{[\phi] \in \pi_0\text{Diff}(M^n)\mid\text{ there exists }\Phi \in \text{Diff}(S^{n+2})\text{ s.t. }\Phi|M^n = \phi \}, \] and when \(n \geq 5\) one can replace the isotopy by pseudo-isotopy due to a result of \textit{J. Cerf} [Manifolds - Amsterdam 1970, Proc. NUFFIC Summer School Manifolds 1970, Lect. Notes Math. 197, 76--82 (1971; Zbl 0219.57017)]. After reviewing results related to surfaces in \(S^4\), the author treats the cases \(E(S^{n+2},S^n)\) and \(E(S^{2p+2},S^p \times S^p)\). In the first case the result is: If \(n \geq 5\) and \((S^{n+2},S^n)\) is unknot, then \(E(S^{n+2},S^n)= Id.\) In the second case the result says: If \(p \geq 3\) and \(S^p \times S^p\) is standardly embedded in \(S^{2p+2}\), then \(E(S^{2p+2},S^p \times S^p) \cong D_8 \oplus \mathbb Z_2 \) if \(p\) is even, and \( \Gamma_V(2)\) if \(p\) is odd, where standardly embedded means that \(S^p \times S^p \subset S^{2p+2}\) is the boundary of a tubular neighborhood of \(S^p \subset S^{2p+1}\), where \(S^{2p+1}\) is an equator of \(S^{2p+2}\).