Classification of knotted tori

A. Skopenkov

Published 2015-02-16Version 1

For a smooth manifold N denote by E^m(N) the set of smooth isotopy classes of smooth embeddings N -> R^m. A description of the set E^m (S^p x S^q) was known only for p=0, m > q+2 or for 2m > 3p+3q+3 (in terms of homotopy groups of spheres and Stiefel manifolds). For m > 2p+q+2 we introduce an abelian group structure on E^m (S^p x S^q) and describe this group up to an extension problem: this group and E^m (D^{p+1} x S^q) + ker l + E^m (S^{p+q}) are associated to the same group for some filtrations of length four. Here l : E -> pi_q(S^{m-p-q-1}) is the linking coefficient defined on the subset E of E^m (S^q U S^{p+q}) formed by isotopy classes of embeddings whose restriction to each component is unknotted. This result and its proof have corollaries which, under stronger dimension restrictions, more explicitly describe E^m (S^p x S^q) in terms of homotopy groups of spheres and Stiefel manifolds. In the proof we use a recent exact sequence of M. Skopenkov.