Knotted families from graspers

Abstract

For any smooth manifold $M$ of dimension $d\ge 4$ we construct explicit classes in homotopy groups of spaces of embeddings of either an arc or a circle into $M$, in every degree that is a multiple of $d-3$, and show that they are detected in the Taylor tower of Goodwillie and Weiss. The classes are obtained from families of string links constructed in the $d$-ball.

32 pages, 17 figures. v2: Shortened title, improved exposition, new figures, added a corollary about string links. Version accepted for publication in J. Topol