Related papers: Man and machine thinking about the smooth 4-dimens…
All checkerboard surfaces for a given knot in $S^3$ are related by isotopy and "kinking" and "unkinking" moves, which change the surfaces' Goeritz matrices like this: $G\leftrightarrow G\oplus [\pm1]=\left[\begin{smallmatrix} G&\mathbf{0}\\…
We provide a new obstruction for a rational homology 3-sphere to arise by Dehn surgery on a given knot in the 3-sphere. The obstruction takes the form of an inequality involving the genus of the knot, the surgery coefficient, and a count of…
In a previous paper, we showed that the original definition of cylindrical contact homology, with rational coefficients, is valid on a closed three-manifold with a dynamically convex contact form. However we did not show that this…
We prove that instanton L-space knots are fibered and strongly quasipositive. Our proof differs conceptually from proofs of the analogous result in Heegaard Floer homology, and includes a new decomposition theorem for cobordism maps in…
Recently, Sarkar-Scaduto-Stoffregen constructed a stable homotopy type for odd Khovanov homology, hence obtaining an action of the Steenrod algebra on Khovanov homology with $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ coefficients. Motivated by their…
We address Gromov's band width inequality and Rosenberg's $S^1$-stability conjecture for simply connected smooth four manifolds. Both results are known to be false in dimension 4 due to counterexamples based on Seiberg-Witten invariants.…
We study a cross-ratio of four generic points of $S^3$ which comes from spherical CR geometry. We construct a homomorphism from a certain group generated by generic configurations of four points in $S^3$ to the pre-Bloch group $\mathcal…
In this article, the author defines an invariant of rational homology 3-spheres equipped with a contact structure as an element of a cohomotopy set of the Seiberg-Witten Floer spectrum as defined in Manolescu (2003). Furthermore, in light…
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…
We show that certain smooth tori with group $\mathbb{Z}$ in $S^4$ have exteriors with standard equivariant intersection forms, and so are topologically unknotted. These include the turned 1-twist-spun tori in the 4-sphere constructed by…
The notion of the geometrical $\Z/2 \oplus \Z/2$--control of self-intersection of a skew-framed immersion and the notion of the $\Z/2 \oplus \Z/4$-structure (the cyclic structure) on the self-intersection manifold of a $\D_4$-framed…
We produce combinatorial formulas for invariants of smooth embeddings of $(2\ell-1)$-spheres into $\mathbb{R}^{3\ell}$ for $\ell\geq 2$. Furthermore, we obtain such a formula for the Haefliger invariant, which classifies smooth knots…
An essential goal in the study of finite type invariants of some objects (knots, manifolds) is the construction of a universal finite type invariant, universal in the sense that it contains all finite type invariants of the given objects.…
We show that superconformal ${\cal N}=4,2$ algebras are well-suited to represent some invariant constructions characterizing exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ relative to a given radial family. We examine the case of ${\cal N}=4, \hat{c}=4$ (at $r=1$…
We formulate a refinement of SU(N) Chern-Simons theory on a three-manifold via the refined topological string and the (2,0) theory on N M5 branes. The refined Chern-Simons theory is defined on any three-manifold with a semi-free circle…
Milnor's $\bar{\mu}$-invariants of links in the $3$-sphere $S^3$ vanish on any link concordant to a boundary link. In particular, they are trivial on any knot in $S^3$. Here we consider knots in thickened surfaces $\Sigma \times [0,1]$,…
Recently Auckly-Kim-Melvin-Ruberman showed that for any finite subgroup G of SO(4) there exists a contractible 4-manifold with an effective G-action on its boundary so that the twists associated to the non-trivial elements of G do not…
We use monopole Floer homology to study the topology of the space of contact structures on a 3-manifold. Our main tool is a generalisation of the Kronheimer--Mrowka--Ozsv\'ath--Szab\'o contact invariant to an invariant for families of…
A well-known conjecture of Rasmussen states that for any knot $K$ in $S^{3}$, the rank of the reduced Khovanov homology of $K$ is greater than or equal to the rank of the reduced knot Floer homology of $K$. This rank inequality is supposed…
We show that the smooth equivariant concordance group of 2-knots in $S^4$ invariant under a linear $\mathbb{Z}/d\mathbb{Z}$ action is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ for all $d \geq 2$. This is in contrast to the non-equivariant…