Related papers: On Codimension Two Ribbon Embeddings

Motivated by the study of ribbon knots we explore symmetric unions, a beautiful construction introduced by Kinoshita and Terasaka 50 years ago. It is easy to see that every symmetric union represents a ribbon knot, but the converse is still…

We study petal diagrams of knots, which provide a method of describing knots in terms of permutations in a symmetric group $S_{2n+1}$. We define two classes of moves on such permutations, called trivial petal additions and crossing…

We describe relations between hyperbolic geometry and codimension two knots or, more exactly, between varieties of conjugacy classes of discrete faithful representations of the fundamental groups of hyperbolic n-manifolds M into…

For a positive integer $n\ge 3$, the collection of $n$-sided polygons embedded in $3$-space defines the space of geometric knots. We will consider the subspace of equilateral knots, consisting of embedded $n$-sided polygons with unit length…

We construct two distinct yet related M-theory models that provide suitable frameworks for the study of knot invariants. We then focus on the four-dimensional gauge theory that follows from appropriately compactifying one of these M-theory…

In the topological category, the classification of homotopy ribbon discs is known when the fundamental group $G$ of the exterior is $\mathbb{Z}$ and the Baumslag-Solitar group $BS(1,2)$. We prove that if a group $G$ is geometrically…

The knot quandle is an invariant of $n$-knots. In this note, we study the knot quandles of Suciu's ribbon $n$-knots, an infinite family of knots with isomorphic knot groups. We prove that their knot quandles are mutually non-isomorphic.…

Ribbon concordances between knots generalize the notion of ribbon knots. Agol, building on work of Gordon, proved ribbon concordance gives a partial order on knots in $S^3$. In previous work, the author and Greene conjectured that positive…

Given a positive integer $n$, we say that two knots are $V_n$-equivalent if they have the same Vassiliev invariants of order $\le n$. We showed that the $V_n$-equivalence classes of ribbon knots form a group, the operation being induced by…

We study the gordian graph of all knots in $\R^3$: two knots are adjacent if they differ by a single crossing change. We prove that this graph contains isometrically an infinite countable tree with infinite valency, and that the complement…

We study a notion of distance between knots, defined in terms of the number of saddles in ribbon concordances connecting the knots. We construct a lower bound on this distance using the X-action on Lee's perturbation of Khovanov homology.

The trace of $n$-framed surgery on a knot in $S^3$ is a 4-manifold homotopy equivalent to the 2-sphere. We characterise when a generator of the second homotopy group of such a manifold can be realised by a locally flat embedded 2-sphere…

In this note we show that ribbon concordance forms a partial ordering on the set of knots, answering a question of Gordon. The proof makes use of representation varieties of the knot groups to $SO(N)$ and relations between them induced by a…

We resolve an open problem by showing that the Yoshikawa's fifth oriented move in his list cannot be reproduced by any finite sequence of the other nine moves and planar isotopies. Our proof introduces a link-type semi-invariant that…

Musical gestures connect the symbolic layer of the score to the physical layer of sound. I focus here on the mathematical theory of musical gestures, and I propose its generalization to include braids and knots. In this way, it is possible…

Given a uniformly convergent sequence of ambient isotopies $(H_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}$, bijectivity of the limit function $H_\infty$ together with a minor compactness condition guarantees that $H_\infty$ is also an ambient isotopy. By…

In this survey paper we present the $L$--moves between braids and how they can adapt and serve for establishing and proving braid equivalence theorems for various diagrammatic settings, such as for classical knots, for knots in knot…

We study cobordisms and cobordisms rel boundary of PL locally-flat disk knots $D^{n-2}\into D^n$. Cobordisms of disk knots that do not fix the boundary sphere knots are easily classified by the cobordism properties of these boundaries, and…

We introduce a new combinatorial method to encode knots and links with applications to knot invariants. Clasp diagrams defined in this paper are combinatorial blueprints for building knot diagrams out of full twists on two strings rather…

We prove that every smooth $n$-dimensional knot in $\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$ can be ambiently isotoped into the Menger $n$-dimensional continuum. In contrast with classical embedding theorems for universal compacta, our construction is explicit…