Isotopies of surfaces in 4-manifolds via banded unlink diagrams

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Publication:2004532



Abstract: In this paper, we study surfaces embedded in 4-manifolds. We give a complete set of moves relating banded unlink diagrams of isotopic surfaces in an arbitrary 4-manifold. This extends work of Swenton and Kearton-Kurlin in S4. As an application, we show that bridge trisections of isotopic surfaces in a trisected 4-manifold are related by a sequence of perturbations and deperturbations, affirmatively proving a conjecture of Meier and Zupan. We also exhibit several isotopies of unit surfaces in mathbbCP2 (i.e. spheres in the generating homology class), proving that many explicit unit surfaces are isotopic to the standard mathbbCP1. This strengthens some previously known results about the Gluck twist in S4, related to Kirby problem 4.23.


In this paper, the authors study a generalization of banded unlink diagrams to embedded surfaces in an arbitrary 4-manifold equipped with a Morse function, extending the work of \textit{F. J. Swenton} [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 10, No. 8, 1133--1141 (2001; Zbl 1001.57044)] and \textit{C. Kearton} and \textit{V. Kurlin} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 8, No. 3, 1223--1247 (2008; Zbl 1151.57027)] for the case of \(S^4\). A band for a link \(L\) in a 3-manifold is an embedded 2-disk attached to \(L\) along two segments, and a banded unlink is the union of an unlink \(L\) and a family of disjoint bands for \(L\). The authors describe an embedded surface in a 4-manifold \(X\) by arranging it in banded unlink position, which satisfies that the intersections with the level sets of a given Morse function consist of disjoint unions of embedded disks and banded unlinks. And they represent a surface in banded unlink position by a banded unlink diagram, which is defined in terms of the Kirby diagram in \(S^3\) associated with \(X\), equipped with an unlink \(L\) and a family of bands for \(L\). The main results are as follows. The authors describe a set of moves on banded unlink diagrams, called band moves. Band moves consist of moves established by \textit{K. Yoshikawa} [Osaka J. Math. 31, No. 3, 497--522 (1994; Zbl 0861.57033)] for the case of \(S^4\), and several additional moves. They show that for a smooth 4-manifold \(X\) with a Kirby diagram, the embedded surfaces \(\Sigma\) and \(\Sigma'\) in \(X\) are isotopic if and only if their banded unlink diagrams are related by a finite sequence of band moves. This is shown by case analysis and using for some cases an argument analogous to the one due to Kearton and Kurlin [loc. cit.]. Using this result, the authors consider an embedded surface \(\Sigma\) via a bridge trisection of \(\Sigma\), and they affirmatively prove a conjecture of \textit{J. Meier} and \textit{A. Zupan} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115, No. 43, 10880--10886 (2018; Zbl 1418.57017)]: for surfaces \(S\) and \(S'\) in bridge position with respect to a trisection \(\mathcal{T}\) of a closed 4-manifold \(X\), if \(S\) and \(S'\) are isotopic, then they are related by a sequence of perturbations and deperturbations, followed by a \(\mathcal{T}\)-regular isotopy. Further, they consider the case of unit surfaces in \(\mathbb{C}P^2\). A unit surface is a surface in \(\mathbb{C}P^2\) which intersects the standard \(\mathbb{C}P^1 \subset \mathbb{C}P^2\) in exactly one pont. In particular, they show that for a genus-\(g\) unit surface-knot \(F=S \# \mathbb{C}P^1 \subset \mathbb{C}P^2\), where \(S \subset S^4\) is an orientable surface that is \(0\)-concordant to a band-sum of twist-spun knots and unknotted surfaces, \(F\) is isotopic to the standard \(\mathbb{C}P^1\) trivially stabilized \(g\) times.











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