A characterization of 2-knots groups.
A n-knot group is the fundamental group of the complement of an n-sphere smoothly embedded in Sn+2. Artin gave in 1925 ([A]) an algebraic characterization of 1-knot groups. M. Kervaire gave in 1965 ([K]) an algebraic characterization of n-knot groups for n ≥ 3. The problem of characterizing algebraically 2-knot groups has been posed several times (see for example [Su, Problem 4.7]). Ribbon 2-knot groups have been characterized algebraically by Yajima [Y].We will give here a characterization of 2-knot...