Topological Spheres – Linking Explained

at.algebraic-topologygt.geometric-topologyreference-request

Is there a simple proof of the fact that:

If $A\subset S^3$ is homeomorphic to $S^1$, then there is a circle $B$
embedded into $S^3\setminus A$ that such that the circles $A$ and $B$
are linked with the linking number $1$?

If $A$ is smoothly embedded, than it is easy. The problem is that the general topological embedding can be very complicated and I do not see a simple geometric explanation of this fact. I know that $H_1(S^3\setminus A)=\mathbb Z$ (Corollary 1.29 in Vick's Homology Theory) so the generator of the homology group should be a circle.

Edit 1:
This is actually true as John Klein pointed out in his answer below, but I do not know the answer to the higher dimensional version of the problem stated below. Only a partial answer is given in comments below.

The question can be then generalized to higher dimensional spheres.

If $A\subset S^n$ is homeomorphic to $S^k$, there should be a
topological sphere in $S^n\setminus A$ of dimension $n-k-1$ that links
$A$ with the linking number $1$.

Edit 2. A counterexample is given below in my answer.

Best Answer

Let $C = S^3 \setminus A$. Alexander duality says that $$ H_1(C) \cong H^1(A) \cong \Bbb Z\, . $$ Let $\alpha: S^1 \to C$ be any map representing a generator of $H_1(C)$ (every first homology class is spherical by the Hurewicz theorem). By homotopical approximation we can assume $\alpha$ is a smooth embedding. We can also assume without loss in generality that the image of $\alpha$ misses the north pole of $S^3$. Identify the complement of the north pole with $\Bbb R^3$. Set $B= \alpha(S^1)$. Then $A\amalg B\subset \Bbb R^3$. The degree of the map $\require{AMScd}$ \begin{CD} \ell: A \times B @>>> S^2 \end{CD} given by $(x,y) \mapsto (x - y)/|x - \alpha(y)|$ is the linking number of $A$ with $B$ by definition. On the other hand, this map has degree one (after choosing appropriate homology generators).

The point is that the pushforward of a generator \begin{CD} H_1(S^1) @>\alpha_\ast >> H_1(C) \end{CD} coincides with the degree of $\ell$.

How can we check this? Well, assuming $A$ has a nice regular neighborhood, we could redefine $C$ as the complement of that neighborhood. Then $\ell$ can be redefined as the degree of the map $$ A \times C \to S^2 $$ again given by the same formula, where we are assuming our new $C$ misses the north pole of $S^3$. Alexander duality says that the induced slant product pairing $$ H_1(A) \otimes H_1(C) \to H_2(S^2) = \Bbb Z $$ is non-singular, so the degree is $\pm 1$.

Even if $A$ fails to have a nice regular neighborhood, we can assume it misses the north pole $x$ and that $C:= S^n \setminus A$ misses another point $y$ of $S^n$. Identify $S^n \setminus x \cong \Bbb R^n \cong S^n \setminus y$. Then, similarly, we obtain a map $$ A\times C \to S^2 $$ and there a linking map $A\times B\to S^2$. With these changes, the argument proceeds as before.

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