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added discussion now that the hypotheses have been clarified.
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Sam Nead
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As far as I understand your question, the answer is "no". Consider the Whitehead link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehead_link

The two components of the Whitehead link are unknots (thus they are isotopic) but they do not cobound a cylinder.


Thank you for clarifying that you wish to assume that the given link is "split": the components are separated by a two-sphere. In this case, the link is a "split unlink": a distant union of unknots. As Bruno points out, this is an exercise.

As far as I understand your question, the answer is "no". Consider the Whitehead link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehead_link

The two components of the Whitehead link are unknots (thus they are isotopic) but they do not cobound a cylinder.

As far as I understand your question, the answer is "no". Consider the Whitehead link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehead_link

The two components of the Whitehead link are unknots (thus they are isotopic) but they do not cobound a cylinder.


Thank you for clarifying that you wish to assume that the given link is "split": the components are separated by a two-sphere. In this case, the link is a "split unlink": a distant union of unknots. As Bruno points out, this is an exercise.

Source Link
Sam Nead
  • 28.2k
  • 5
  • 72
  • 131

As far as I understand your question, the answer is "no". Consider the Whitehead link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehead_link

The two components of the Whitehead link are unknots (thus they are isotopic) but they do not cobound a cylinder.