Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/iii/paper-141/3/a/solution

Begin with the product cobordism . In its outgoing boundary choose one embedded -ball in each component and attach an -dimensional one-handle along . On the outgoing boundary this deletes those two balls and joins their boundary spheres by , which is precisely the connected-sum construction. With the product orientation,
This is the one-handle cobordism from a disjoint union to a connected sum.

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