Sharpness conjecture for the stabilisation–singular distance inequality

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Let XX be a smooth, compact, orientable 44-manifold, and let Σ\Sigma and Σ′\Sigma' be smooth, properly embedded, orientable, regularly homotopic surfaces in XX. For surfaces Σ\Sigma and Σ′\Sigma', write dst⁡(Σ,Σ′)d_{\operatorname{st}}(\Sigma,\Sigma') for their stabilisation distance and dsing⁡(Σ,Σ′)d_{\operatorname{sing}}(\Sigma,\Sigma') for their singular distance.

Sharpness conjecture. There exist XX, Σ\Sigma, and Σ′\Sigma' as above such that

dst⁡(Σ,Σ′)=dsing⁡(Σ,Σ′)+1.d_{\operatorname{st}}\left(\Sigma,\Sigma'\right)=d_{\operatorname{sing}}\left(\Sigma,\Sigma'\right)+1.

The paper proves the general upper bound dst⁡(Σ,Σ′)≤dsing⁡(Σ,Σ′)+1d_{\operatorname{st}}(\Sigma,\Sigma')\leq d_{\operatorname{sing}}(\Sigma,\Sigma')+1 and asks whether the additional +1+1 is essential. This conjecture asserts that the bound is sharp for some pair of regularly homotopic surfaces.

References

Primary source

Oliver Singh, “Distances between surfaces in 4-manifolds”, arXiv:1905.00763 (2020).

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