Related papers: Simon's conjecture for 2-bridge knots
It is shown, using sutured manifold theory, that if there are any 2-component counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture, then any knot of least genus among components of such counterexamples is not a fibered knot. The general…
We consider irreducible 3-manifolds M that arise as knot complements in closed 3-manifolds and that contain at most two connected strict essential surfaces. The results in the paper relate the boundary slopes of the two surfaces to their…
We prove that a special alternating knot does not decompose as a non-trivial band sum. This restricts concordances from special alternating knots, and we conjecture that special alternating knots are ribbon concordance minimal. We verify…
We investigate the question of when distinct branched surfaces in the complement of a 2-bridge knot support essential surfaces with identical boundary slopes. We determine all instances in which this occurs and identify an infinite family…
The Kauffman bracket skein module $K(M)$ of a $3$-manifold $M$ is the quotient of the $\mathbb{Q}(A)$-vector space spanned by isotopy classes of links in $M$ by the Kauffman relations. A conjecture of Witten states that if $M$ is closed…
Suppose the knot group G(K) of a knot K has a non-abelian representation \rho on A_4 \subset GL(4,Z). We conjecture that the twisted Alexander polynomial of K associated to \rho is of the form: \Delta_K(t)/(1-t) \phi(t^3), where \Delta_K…
In our joint paper with W. Fulton (math.AG/9804041) we prove a formula for the cohomology class of a quiver variety. This formula involves a new class of generalized Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, all of which surprisingly seem to be…
In this paper we show that the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to a parabolic representation determines fiberedness and genus of a wide class of 2-bridge knots. As a corollary we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of…
We establish a criterion that ensures a bounded almost complex curve in a bounded almost complex 4-manifold minimizes genus amongst all smooth surfaces that share its homology class and the transverse link on its boundary. An immediate…
We establish the slice-ribbon conjecture for a large family of Montesinos' knots by means of Donaldson's theorem on the intersection forms of definite 4-manifolds.
Associated to a hyperbolic knot complement in $S^3$ is a set of prime numbers corresponding to the residue characteristics of the ramified places of the quaternion algebras obtained by Dehn surgery on the knots. Previous work by…
We classify all knot diagrams of genus two and three, and give applications to positive, alternating and homogeneous knots, including a classification of achiral genus 2 alternating knots, slice or achiral 2-almost positive knots, a proof…
M. Scharlemann has recently proved that any genus one tunnel number one knot is either a satellite or 2-bridge knot, as conjectured by H. Goda and M. Teragaito; all such knots admit a (1,1) decomposition. In this paper we give a…
We describe the (P)SL(2,C) character varieties of all 2-bridge knots and the diagonal character varieties for all 2-bridge links in terms of a set of polynomials defined using Farey recursion.
Loosely speaking, the Volume Conjecture states that the limit of the n-th colored Jones polynomial of a hyperbolic knot, evaluated at the primitive complex n-th root of unity is a sequence of complex numbers that grows exponentially.…
We study the AJ conjecture that relates the A-polynomial and the colored Jones polynomial of a knot in $S^3$. We confirm the AJ conjecture for $(r,2)$-cables of the $m$-twist knot, for all odd integers $r$ satisfying $\begin{cases}…
We show that a two-bridge ribbon knot $K(m^2 , m k \pm 1)$ with $m > k >0$ and $(m,k)=1$ admits a symmetric union presentation with partial knot which is a two-bridge knot $K(m,k)$. Similar descriptions for all the other two-bridge ribbon…
We show that fundamental groups of the complements of knotted solenoids in $\mathbb{S}^3$ is solely determined by a canonical sequence of knot groups. Moreover it its determined by the embedding up to mirror reflection.
A "folklore conjecture, probably due to Tutte" (as described in [P.D. Seymour, Sums of circuits, Graph theory and related topics (Proc. Conf., Univ. Waterloo, 1977), pp. 341-355, Academic Press, 1979]) asserts that every bridgeless cubic…
We give some remarks on two closely related issues as stated in the title. In particular we show that a Montesinos knot is SU(2)-simple if and only if it is a 2-bridge knot, extending a result of Zentner for 3-tangle summand pretzel knots.…