Embeddings from the point of view of immersion theory: Part I

Let M and N be smooth manifolds. For an open V of M let emb(V,N) be the space of embeddings from V to N. By results of Goodwillie and Goodwillie-Klein, the cofunctor V |--> emb(V,N) is analytic if dim(N)-dim(M) > 2. We deduce that its Taylor series converges to it. For details about the Taylor series, see Part I.

We present an introduction to the manifold calculus of functors, due to Goodwillie and Weiss. Our perspective focuses on the role the derivatives of a functor F play in this theory, and the analogies with ordinary calculus. We survey the construction of polynomial functors, the classification of homogeneous functors, and results regarding convergence of the Taylor tower. We sprinkle examples throughout, and pay special attention to spaces of smooth embeddings.

For smooth manifolds $M$ and $N$, let $\Ebar(M, N)$ be the homotopy fiber of the map $\Emb(M, N)\longrightarrow \Imm(M, N)$. Consider the functor from the category of Euclidean spaces to the category of spectra, defined by the formula $V\mapsto \Sigma^\infty\Ebar(M, N\times V)$. In this paper, we describe the Taylor polynomials of this functor, in the sense of M. Weiss' orthogonal calculus, in the case when $N$ is a nice open submanifold of a Euclidean space. This leads to a ...

Manifold calculus of functors has in recent years been successfully used in the study of the topology of various spaces of embeddings of one manifold in another. Given a space of embeddings, the theory produces a Taylor tower whose purpose is to approximate this space in a suitable sense. Central to the story are deep theorems about the convergence of this tower. We provide an exposition of the convergence results in the special case of embeddings into $\mathbb R^n$, which ha...

In the homotopical study of spaces of smooth embeddings, the functor calculus method (Goodwillie-Klein-Weiss manifold calculus) has opened up important connections to operad theory. Using this and a few simplifying observations, we arrive at an operadic description of the obstructions to deforming smooth immersions into smooth embeddings. We give an application which in some respects improves on recent results of Arone-Turchin and Dwyer-Hess concerning high-dimensional varian...

Given manifolds $M$ and $N$, with $M$ compact, we study the geometrical structure of the space of embeddings of $M$ into $N$, having less regularity than $\mathcal C^\infty$, quotiented by the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$.

We give a complete obstruction to turning an immersion of an m-dimensional manifold M in Euclidean n-space into an embedding when 3n>4m+4. It is a secondary obstruction, and exists only when the primary obstruction, due to Haefliger, vanishes. The obstruction lives in a twisted cobordism group, and its vanishing implies the existence of an embedding in the regular homotopy class of the given immersion in the range indicated. We use Goodwillie's calculus of functors, following...

Aim of this note is to gain cohomological information about the infinite-dimensional manifold $\rm{Emb}_0 (M,N)$ of asymptotically fixed embeddings of M into N from the topology of the target manifold N. This paper has been withdrawn by the author due a conceptual mistake.

In this paper we survey results on the existence of holomorphic embeddings and immersions of Stein manifolds into complex manifolds. Most results pertain to proper maps into Stein manifolds. We include a new result saying that every continuous map $X\to Y$ between Stein manifolds is homotopic to a proper holomorphic embedding provided that $\mathrm{dim} Y > 2\mathrm{dim}\, X$ and we allow a homotopic deformation of the Stein structure on $X$.

This paper investigates the space of codimension zero embeddings of a Poincare duality space in a disk. One of our main results exhibits a tower that interpolates from the space of Poincare immersions to a certain space of "unlinked" Poincare embeddings. The layers of this tower are described in terms of the coefficient spectra of the identity appearing in Goodwillie's homotopy functor calculus. We also answer a question posed to us by Sylvain Cappell. The appendix proposes a...