English

On transverse-universality of twist knots

Geometric Topology 2026-01-21 v3

Abstract

In the search for transverse-universal knots in the standard contact structure on S3\mathbb{S}^3, we present a classification of the transverse twist knots with maximal self-linking number, that admit only overtwisted contact branched covers. As a direct consequence, we obtain an infinite family of transverse knots in (S3,ξstd)(\mathbb{S}^3,\xi_{std}) that are not transverse-universal, although they are universal in the topological sense.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.12585,
  title  = {On transverse-universality of twist knots},
  author = {Sebastian Zapata},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.12585},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages, 18 figures