Stabilisation, scanning and handle cancellation

In this note we describe a family of arguments that link the homotopy-type of a) the diffeomorphism group of the disc $D^n$, b) the space of co-dimension one embedded spheres in a sphere and c) the homotopy-type of the space of co-dimension two trivial knots in a sphere. We also describe some natural extensions to these arguments. We begin with Cerf's `upgraded' proof of Smale's theorem, that the diffeomorphism group of the 2-sphere has the homotopy-type of the isometry group. This entails a canceling-handle construction, related to the `scanning' maps of Budney-Gabai. We further give a Bott-style variation on Cerf's construction, and a related Embedding Calculus framework for these constructions. We use these arguments to prove that the monoid of Schoenflies spheres is a group with respect to the connect-sum operation. This last result is perhaps only interesting when in dimension four, as in other dimensions it follows from the resolution of the various generalized Schoenflies problems.