Unknotting number 21 knots are slice in K3
Geometric Topology
2025-08-18 v2
Abstract
We prove that all knots with unknotting number at most 21 are smoothly slice in the K3 surface. We also prove a more general statement for 4-manifolds that contain a plumbing tree of spheres. Our strategy is based on a flexible method to remove double points of immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds by tubing over neighbourhoods of embedded trees. As a byproduct, we recover a classical result of Norman and Suzuki that every knot is smoothly slice in and in .
Cite
@article{arxiv.2210.10089,
title = {Unknotting number 21 knots are slice in K3},
author = {Marco Marengon and Stefan Mihajlović},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.10089},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
13 pages, 7 figures. Final version accepted for publication