Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 20 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Start with a disk in the zero-handle and attach two untwisted bands passing through the two one-handles. The four passages around its boundary occur in the order , giving an embedded once-punctured torus whose boundary is the attaching circle of the two-handle. Push its interior into the existing four-dimensional handlebody, keeping its boundary on the attaching locus, and cap it with the core disk of a handle. The matching product framing makes the union smooth after rounding its corner. This gives an embedded closed torus .
The torus uses the core of the two-handle exactly once. Equivalently, it intersects that handle's relative co-core disk transversely in one point. Its cellular two-chain is therefore the generator of , which is a cycle and is not a boundary because there are no three-cells. ThusThis is the zero section in the commutator handlebody of the torus .