CLASSICAL LINK INVARIANTS AND THE HAWAIIAN EARRINGS SPACE
We show that, in search of link invariants more discriminating than Milnor's [Formula: see text]-invariants, one is naturally led to consider seemingly pathological objects such as links with an infinite number of components and the join of an infinite number of circles (Hawaiian earrings space). We define an infinite homology boundary link, and show that any finite sublink of an infinite homology boundary link has vanishing Milnor's invariants. Moreover, all links known to have vanishing Milnor's invariants are finite sublinks of infinite homology boundary links. We show that the exterior of an infinite homology boundary link admits a map to the Hawaiian earrings space, and that this may be employed to get a factorization of K. E. Orr's omega-invariant through a rather simple space.