Suppose that $N_1$ and $N_2$ are closed smooth manifolds of dimension n that are homeomorphic. We prove that the spaces of smooth knots, $ \operatorname {\mathrm {Emb}}(\mathrm {S}^1, N_1)$ and $ \operatorname {\mathrm {Emb}}(\mathrm {S}^1, N_2),$ have the same homotopy $(2n-7)$ -type. In the four-dimensional case, this means that the spaces of smooth knots in homeomorphic $4$ -manifolds have sets $\pi _0$ of components that are in bijection, and the corresponding path components have the same fundamental groups $\pi _1$ . The result about $\pi _0$ is well-known and elementary, but the result about $\pi _1$ appears to be new. The result gives a negative partial answer to a question of Oleg Viro. Our proof uses the Goodwillie–Weiss embedding tower. We give a new model for the quadratic stage of the Goodwillie–Weiss tower, and prove that the homotopy type of the quadratic approximation of the space of knots in N does not depend on the smooth structure on N. Our results also give a lower bound on $\pi _2 \operatorname {\mathrm {Emb}}(\mathrm {S}^1, N)$ . We use our model to show that for every choice of basepoint, each of the homotopy groups, $\pi _1$ and $\pi _2,$ of $ \operatorname {\mathrm {Emb}}(\mathrm {S}^1, \mathrm {S}^1\times \mathrm {S}^3)$ contains an infinitely generated free abelian group.

Nous démontrons que tous les plongements d’une variété compacte sans bord et simplement connexe de dimension quatre dans la sphère de dimension six sont concordants.

We construct an orientable ribbon surface $F \subset B^4$ which is universal in the following sense: any orientable 4-manifold $M \cong B^4 \cup \text{1-handles} \cup \text{2-handles}$ can be represented as a cover of $B^4$ branched over $F$.

A proof is given that for each non-negative integer $g$, there is an infinite family of knotted surfaces of genus $g$, none of which is ambient isotopic to itself with the orientation reversed.

We give a topological interpretation of the core group invariant of a surface embedded in ${{S}^{4}}\,\left[ \text{F-R} \right],\,\left[ \text{Ro} \right]$. We show that the group is isomorphic to the free product of the fundamental group of the double branch cover of ${{S}^{4}}$ with the surface as a branched set, and the infinite cyclic group. We present a generalization for unoriented surfaces, for other cyclic branched covers, and other codimension two embeddings of manifolds in spheres.

Consider a (real) projective plane which is topologically locally flatly embedded in S4. It is known that it always admits a 2-disk bundle neighborhood, whose boundary is homeomorphic to the quaternion space Q, the total space of the nonorientable S1-bundle over RP2 with Euler number ± 2, with fundamental group isomorphic to the quaternion group of order eight. Conversely let f: Q → S4 be an arbitrary locally flat topological embedding. Then we show that the closure of each connected component of S4 − f(Q) is always homeomorphic to the exterior of a topologically locally flatly embedded projective plane in S4. We also show that, for a large class of embedded projective planes in S4, a pair of exteriors of such embedded projective planes is always realized as the closures of the connected components of S4 − f(Q) for some locally flat topological embedding f: Q → S4.

Two examples of topological embeddings of S2 in S4 are constructed. The first has the unusual property that the fundamental group of the complement is isomorphic to the integers while the second homotopy group of the complement is nontrivial. The second example is a non-locally flat embedding whose complement exhibits this property locally.

Two theorems are proved. The first answers the question of just when good π1 implies the vanishing of the higher homotopy groups for knot complements in S4. The second theorem characterizes local flatness for 2-spheres in S4 in terms of a local π1 condition.

Plumbing a Hopf band on the fibre-surface of a simple fibred knot is a geometric operation that produces another such knot. We show by algebraic methods that every high odd-dimensional simple fibred knot is obtained from the unknot by using this operation and its inverse.