Related papers: Covering link calculus and iterated Bing doubles

Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…

We define an obstruction for a knot to be Z[Z]-homology ribbon, and use this to provide restrictions on the integers that can occur as the triple linking numbers of derivative links of knots that are either homotopy ribbon or doubly slice.…

Double twist knots $K_{m, n}$ are known to be rationally slice if $mn = 0$, $n = -m\pm 1$, or $n = -m$. In this paper, we prove the converse. It is done by showing that infinitely many prime power-fold cyclic branched covers of the other…

The slicing number of a knot, $u_s(K)$, is the minimum number of crossing changes required to convert $K$ to a slice knot. This invariant is bounded above by the unknotting number and below by the slice genus $g_s(K)$. We show that for many…

Let $M$ be a connected, closed, oriented three-manifold and $K$, $L$ two rationally null-homologous oriented simple closed curves in $M$. We give an explicit algorithm for computing the linking number between $K$ and $L$ in terms of a…

For n >1, if the Seifert form of a knotted 2n-1 sphere K in S^{2n+1} has a metabolizer, then the knot is slice. Casson and Gordon proved that this is false in dimension three (n = 1). However, in the three dimensional case it is true that…

In this short note we observe that a result of Eliashberg and Polterovitch allows to use the doubly slice genus as an obstruction for a Legendrian knot to be a slice of a concordance from the trivial Legendrian knot with maximal…

As proved by Hedden and Ording, there exist knots for which the Ozsvath-Szabo and Rasmussen smooth concordance invariants, tau and s, differ. The Hedden-Ording examples have nontrivial Alexander polynomials and are not topologically slice.…

Jain's iterative rounding theorem is a well-known result in the area of approximation algorithms and, more broadly, in combinatorial optimization. The theorem asserts that LP relaxations of several problems in network design and…

We use d invariants of the 2-fold branched cover to show nonsliceness of a set of algebraically slice knots.

Bing doubling is an operation which gives a satellite of a knot. It is also applied to a link by specifying a component of the link. We give a formula to compute the reduced colored Jones polynomial of a Bing double by using that of the…

As a corollary of work of Ozsvath and Szabo [math.GT/0301149], it is shown that the classical concordance group of algebraically slice knots has an infinite cyclic summand and in particular is not a divisible group.

We determine which integral surgeries on a large class of circular chain links bound rational homology balls. Our key tool is the lattice-theoretic cubiquity obstruction recently developed by Greene and Owens. We discuss a practical method…

We construct many examples of non-slice knots in 3-space that cannot be distinguished from slice knots by previously known invariants. Using Whitney towers in place of embedded disks, we define a geometric filtration of the 3-dimensional…

We propose and analyze a structure with which to organize the difference between a knot in the 3-sphere bounding a topologically embedded 2-disk in the 4-ball and it bounding a smoothly embedded disk. The n-solvable filtration of the…

The twisted torsion of a 3-manifold is well-known to be zero whenever the corresponding twisted Alexander module is non-torsion. Under mild extra assumptions we introduce a new twisted torsion invariant which is always non-zero. We show how…

We show that if the branched double cover of an alternating link arises as $p/q \in \mathbb{Q} \setminus \mathbb{Z}$ surgery on a knot in $S^3$, then this is exhibited by a rational tangle replacement in an alternating diagram.

In the 60's Levine proved that if $R$ is a slice knot, then on any genus $g$ Seifert surface for $R$ there is a $g$ component link $J$, called a derivative of $R$, on which the Seifert form vanishes. Many subsequent obstructions to $R$…

We employ Hirzebruch-type invariants obtained from iterated p-covers to investigate concordance of links and string links. We show that the invariants naturally give various group homomorphisms of the string link concordance group into…

Conjecturally, a knot is slice if and only if its positive Whitehead double is slice. We consider an analogue of this conjecture for slice disks in the four-ball: two slice disks of a knot are smoothly isotopic if and only if their positive…