English

Slice Implies Mutant Ribbon for Odd, 5-Stranded Pretzel Knots

Geometric Topology 2018-03-16 v2

Abstract

A pretzel knot KK is called oddodd if all its twist parameters are odd, and mutantmutant ribbonribbon if it is mutant to a simple ribbon knot. We prove that the family of odd, 5-stranded pretzel knots satisfies a weaker version of the Slice-Ribbon Conjecture: All slice, odd, 5-stranded pretzel knots are mutantmutant ribbonribbon. We do this in stages by first showing that 5-stranded pretzel knots having twist parameters with all the same sign or with exactly one parameter of a different sign have infinite order in the topological knot concordance group, and thus in the smooth knot concordance group as well. Next, we show that any odd, 5-stranded pretzel knot with zero pairs or with exactly one pair of canceling twist parameters is not slice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1511.07009,
  title  = {Slice Implies Mutant Ribbon for Odd, 5-Stranded Pretzel Knots},
  author = {Kathryn A. Bryant},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1511.07009},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

31 pages, 9 figures. Version 2 includes results for pretzel knots with single-twists (strands with twisting parameter 1 or -1), which were not addressed in version 1. Version 2 also includes one new figure and fixes a few typos

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:51:30.359Z