Bridge trisections and Seifert solids
Abstract
We adapt Seifert's algorithm for classical knots and links to the setting of tri-plane diagrams for bridge trisected surfaces in the 4-sphere. Our approach allows for the construction of a Seifert solid that is described by a Heegaard diagram. The Seifert solids produced can be assumed to have exteriors that can be built without 3-handles; in contrast, we give examples of Seifert solids (not coming from our construction) whose exteriors require arbitrarily many 3-handles. We conclude with two classification results. The first shows that surfaces admitting doubly-standard shadow diagrams are unknotted. The second says that a -bridge trisection in which some sector contains at least patches is completely decomposable, thus the corresponding surface is unknotted. This settles affirmatively a conjecture of the second and fourth authors.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2210.09669,
title = {Bridge trisections and Seifert solids},
author = {Jason Joseph and Jeffrey Meier and Maggie Miller and Alexander Zupan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.09669},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
23 pages, 6 figures; v1 of arXiv:2112.11557 has been divided into two papers: v2, to be posted simultaneously, and the present article, which adds an expanded discussion of Seifert solids