English

On slice alternating 3-braid closures

Geometric Topology 2023-06-22 v2

Abstract

We construct ribbon surfaces of Euler characteristic one for several infinite families of alternating 3-braid closures. We also use a twisted Alexander polynomial obstruction to conclude the classification of smoothly slice knots which are closures of alternating 3-braids with up to 20 crossings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2012.00577,
  title  = {On slice alternating 3-braid closures},
  author = {Vitalijs Brejevs},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.00577},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

18 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables; added Section 4 and appendix with twisted Alexander polynomial computations, changed title, made minor corrections and improvements in Sections 1-3, uploaded accompanying code