Immersions of the projective plane with one triple point

Abstract

We consider C ∞ generic immersions of the projective plane into the 3-sphere. Pinkall has shown that every immersion of the projective plane is homotopic through immersions to Boy's immersion, or its mirror. There is another lesser-known immersion of the projective plane with self-intersection set equivalent to Boy's but whose image is not homeomorphic to Boy's. We show that any C ∞ generic immersion of the projective plane whose self-intersection set in the 3-sphere is connected and has a single triple point is ambiently isotopic to precisely one of these two models, or their mirrors. We further show that any generic immersion of the projective plane with one triple point can be obtained by a sequence of toral and spherical surgical modifications of these models. Finally we present some simple applications of the theorem regarding discrete ambient automorphism groups; image-homology of immersions with one triple point; and almost tight ambient isotopy classes.