English

On closed 3-braids with unknotting number one

Geometric Topology 2009-02-11 v1

Abstract

We prove that if an alternating 3-braid knot has unknotting number one, then there must exist an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram of it, and we enumerate such knots. The argument combines the obstruction to unknotting number one developed by Ozsv\'ath and Szab\'o using Heegaard Floer homology, together with one coming from Donaldson's Theorem A.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0902.1573,
  title  = {On closed 3-braids with unknotting number one},
  author = {Joshua Greene},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0902.1573},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

29 pages, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T12:09:35.737Z