Branched covers of quasipositive links and L-spaces
Abstract
Let be a oriented link such that , the -fold cyclic cover of branched over , is an L-space for some . We show that if either is a strongly quasipositive link other than one with Alexander polynomial a multiple of , or is a quasipositive link other than one with Alexander polynomial divisible by , then there is an integer , determined by the Alexander polynomial of in the first case and the Alexander polynomial of and the smooth -genus of , , in the second, such that . If is a strongly quasipositive knot with monic Alexander polynomial such as an L-space knot, we show that is not an L-space for , and that the Alexander polynomial of is a non-trivial product of cyclotomic polynomials if is an L-space for some . Our results allow us to calculate the smooth and topological 4-ball genera of, for instance, quasi-alternating quasipositive links. They also allow us to classify strongly quasipositive alternating links and -strand pretzel links.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1710.07658,
title = {Branched covers of quasipositive links and L-spaces},
author = {Michel Boileau and Steven Boyer and Cameron McA. Gordon},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.07658},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
49 pages, 7 figures, minor corrections and improved exposition, accepted for publication by the Journal of Topology