English

When do links admit homeomorphic C-complexes?

Geometric Topology 2016-10-13 v3

Abstract

Any two knots admit orientation preserving homeomorphic Seifert surfaces, as can be seen by stabilizing. There is a generalization of a Seifert surface to the setting of links called a C-complex. In this paper, we ask when two links will admit orientation preserving homeomorphic C-complexes. In the case of 2-component links, we find that the pairwise linking number provides a complete obstruction. In the case of links with 3 or more components and zero pairwise linking number, Milnor's triple linking number provides a complete obstruction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1604.05361,
  title  = {When do links admit homeomorphic C-complexes?},
  author = {Christopher William Davis and Grant Roth},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.05361},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

11 pages, 12 figures. Corrections made to the bibliography

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:35:21.590Z