Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
This note is concerned specifically with links of two (disjoint) n-spheres in an (n + 2)-manifold M, i.e. embeddings L:Sn + Sn —> M. The links L0 and L1 are isotopic if they are t he ends of a continuous family Li:Sn + Sn —> M (0 ≦ t ≦ 1) of links. They are ambient isotopic or equivalent if there is a continuous family of self-homeomorphisms ht: M—> M (0 ≦ t ≦ 1) such that h0 = identity and h1◯L0 = L1. Ambient isotopic links are isotopic, but not conversely. For example, an isotopy can tie and untie little knots (as in Figure 3) in the components of a link, thus changing the original link into one which is inequivalent to the original.