PORTUGALIAE MATHEMATICA VOLUME 6 : 1 9 4 7 Publicaggo subsidiada por Publication subventionnée par Publication sponsored by JUNTA DE INVESTIGAGAO MATEMATICA © SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE MATEMATICA \_ Edigéo de GAZETA DE MATEMATICA, LDA.» ORTUGALIAE MATHEMATICA HERMANN & C.ie, Editeurs Rua Serpa Pinto, 17, 4."-Esq. 6, Rue de le Sorbonne USBOA (PORTUGAL) PARIS (Sime)PORTUGALIAR MATHEMATICA Vol. 6-—Fase, 2— 1947 ON THE GROUPS OF CERTAIN LINKAGES by BR. PEREIRA CoKsO0 (at Coimbra) (Recebido om Setembro de 1917) The remarkable homotopy properties of Antoine's [3] point set which have been studied by Alexander {1} depend on the fact that the meridian cireuits of a torus are not nullhomotopic in the residual space (in R') of an ordinary closed chain of unknotted curves lying inside the torus and so that the whole chain winds once round the axis of the torus. The problem of deciding whether a loop is null- homotopic in the residual space of a linkage can be reduced to a word-problem in a group defined by generators and relations caleu- lated from a regular projection of the linkage by a well-known method. Nevertheless word-problems are generally difficult except in the sim- plest cases. In consequence of lemma 1 it is possible to simplify problems of this kind and we prove for moro general types of chains a property similar to the above mentioned one. Regular projections aro also used but as, so to speak, «local» conditions so that in general it will not be necessary to calewlate the group of the whole chain. ‘The proof of lemma 1 is shortened by means of a proposition on combinatory topogy proved separately in § 4. This paper has been begun and almost finished at Manchester Uni- versity on suggestion and under the supervision, of Professor M. HT. A, Newman to whom I remain extremely grateful. 1. Lena 1. Let F be a closed set of R®,C a@ simple closed unknotted polygon contained in ¥ and EB a non-singular simplicial 2-clement boun- ded by © in R®. Let 1. be aloop in R'~(F UE) nul/hamotopie in R'—F- If all loops in B—¥ ulthomotopic in R'—F are also nullhomotopic in E—F, L es nullhomotnpic in R'—(F UE). In consequence of theorem 2 (in § 4) we may assume that E lies in a plane x. If L is nullhomotopic in R°—F it bounds there a singular58 R, PEREIRA COELHO 2-element which is deformable in R’. F into a polyhedral, in general with singularitics, 2-element which we may .assume to be in relative general position with . Let us call I the original non-singular 2-ele- ment mapped on that polyhedral 2-clement 9 (1). T) NE] is at most 1-dimensional and does not coutain isolated points since 2(I) and E are in relative general position. By the same reason ande since LNE Cn 9(1)=0 each vertex of [9 (I) 9 B] belongs to two and only two edges and this polyhedron is formed by a finite number of disjoint simple closed polygons, P. Let P, be those polygons that are not interior to any other P and D; the non-singular 2element bounded by the corresponding P; in I. Bach 9(P,) is a loop in BF nullhomotopie in R'—F since it bounds there 9(D,). There- fore it is also nullhomotopic in E—F bounding there a 2-element E; in general with singularities. Let 3 be the distance between UE; and FP, « the minimum of the angles formed with = by the edges of (I) that intersect this plan and 2 the minimum length of the segments in which these edges are divided by «. Let us consider two planes s' and =" parallel to = (one on each side) and at a distance < from it less than 4 sina and than 3/(L+-eot 2). In these conditions corresponding to each P; there are in T two other simple closed polygons Dj and P/ mapped by ¢ in x! and x", respectively, one inside and the other outside Pj. All these polygons P;,P; and Pj are disjoint. Let us call Pj the polygon outside P; and Dj the non-singular 2-element it bounds in I. From 2(1+eota)<3 it follows that 9(Pj) is deformable in '—F into the orthogonal projection of ¢(P,) in x* and that the corresponding pro- jection of E; also doos not intersect F. ‘Therefore 2(P}) bounds a element Ej in s'—F. Let 9 be a mapping of I in R°—F that coincides with 9 exeept in the interior of the Dj and maps these 2-elements on the corresponding Ej. 9° (1) is a 2-element and this pro- ves the lemma. A straightforward generalization is Turonem 1. Let F be a closed set of RY, C.(0=1,2,---,n) simple closed polygons contained in F and bounding ix B® nou-singular sim plicial 2-elements Ey and La loop in W—(F UE, UB, U---UE,) nulthomotopic ix RX. If, for every ¢, all loops in Ex—F nullhomo- topic in R—P ave also nullhomotopic ia B,—F, L és nullhomotopie in R\—(FUF,UF,U-.-UF,) where F; is any closed set contuined in Ey and such that F;— ©; does not meet the interior of any Q-element Ex with k>i.