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Does anyone know how to prove that any $n$-dimensional PL-manifold has an imbedding in euclidean space of dimension $2n$ ? Is this done via dimension theory ? Are there any references ?

Thanks a lot for your help !!!

Cheers

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    I mean not any PL manifold, but any compact PL manifold2012-03-22

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The sketch of the idea is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_embedding_theorem

it's called the Strong Whitney Embedding Theorem.

Getting the embedding into $\mathbb R^{2n+1}$ is just general position. Similarly, you can construct an immersion in $\mathbb R^{2n}$ by general position.

At that point, you perturb the immersion so that all double points are regular, meaning intersecting like $\mathbb R^n \times \{0\}^n$ and $\{0\}^n \times \mathbb R^n$ in $\mathbb R^{2n}$.

Then you try to apply the "Whitney Trick". This only works if the manifolds dimension $n$ is at least $3$. When $n=1,2$ you have to resort to other methods. $n=1$ is simple, since the circle is the only compact connected boundaryless 1-manifold. $n=2$ could use the classification of surfaces.

The basic idea of the Whitney trick is explained on the webpage. You try to `cancel' opposite double-points by finding a local model where you can construct the cancelling motion (regular homotopy it tends to be called in that literature -- or a 1-parameter family of immersions).

Sometimes you can't, and for that you modify the immersion by adding a local double point. That's what the function $\alpha_m$ describes on the Wikipedia page, the local model for the double-point introduction.

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    Ah ! this is good news for my work, thanks a lot for your help !!!2012-03-22