Related papers: On the Slice-Ribbon Conjecture for Montesinos knot…

We apply Donaldson's theorem on the intersection forms of definite 4--manifolds to characterize the lens spaces which smoothly bound rational homology 4--dimensional balls. Our result implies, in particular, that every smoothly slice…

Using Gauge theoretical techniques employed by Lisca for 2-bridge knots and by Greene-Jabuka for 3-stranded pretzel knots, we show that no member of the family of Montesinos knots M(0;[m_1+1,n_1+2],[m_2+1,n_2+2],q), with certain…

The Slope Conjecture relates the degree of the colored Jones polynomial to the boundary slopes of a knot. We verify the Slope Conjecture and the Strong Slope Conjecture for Montesinos knots $M(\frac{1}{r},\frac{1}{s-\frac{1}{u}},\frac{1}{t}…

We determine the smooth concordance order of the 3-stranded pretzel knots P(p,q,r) with p,q,r odd. We show that each one of finite order is, in fact, ribbon, thereby proving the slice-ribbon conjecture for this family of knots. As…

We give a necessary, and in some cases sufficient, condition for sliceness inside the family of pretzel knots $P (p_1,...,p_n)$ with one $p_i$ even. The three stranded case yields two interesting families of examples: the first consists of…

The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of…

The (Strong) Slope Conjecture relates the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot to certain essential surfaces in the knot complement. We verify the Slope Conjecture and the Strong Slope Conjecture for 3-string Montesinos knots…

We describe an algorithm to find ribbon disks for alternating knots, and the results of a computer implementation of this algorithm. The algorithm is underlain by a slice link obstruction coming from Donaldson's diagonalisation theorem. It…

The Slope Conjecture relates the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot to boundary slopes of incompressible surfaces. Our aim is to prove the Slope Conjecture for Montesinos knots, and to match parameters of a state-formula for…

Let p and q be distinct integers greater than one. We show that the 2-component pretzel link P(p,q,-p,-q) is not slice, even though it has a ribbon mutant, by using 3-fold branched covers and an obstruction based on Donaldson's…

From Furuta's $\frac{10}{8}$ theorem, we derive a smooth slicing obstruction for knots in $S^3$ using a spin $4$-manifold whose boundary is $0$-surgery on a knot. We show that this obstruction is able to detect torsion elements in the…

Either fibered knots supporting the tight contact structure are unique in their smooth concordance class or there exists a fibered counterexample to the Slice-Ribbon Conjecture.

We give a new construction of slice knots via annulus twists. The simplest slice knots obtained by our method are those constructed by Omae. In this paper, we introduce a sufficient condition for given slice knots to be ribbon, and prove…

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…

The stable Kauffman conjecture posits that a knot in $S^3$ is slice if and only if it admits a slice derivative. We prove a related statement: A knot is handle-ribbon (also called strongly homotopy-ribbon) in a homotopy 4-ball $B$ if and…

We give a complete characterization of the topological slice status of odd 3-strand pretzel knots, proving that an odd 3-strand pretzel knot is topologically slice if and only if either it is ribbon or has trivial Alexander polynomial. (By…

We study the equivariant 4-genus of strongly invertible knots in the $S^3$ boundary of 4-manifolds with involution. We provide techniques for constructing slice disks for knots in various symmetric 4-manifolds via an equivariant version of…

In this note, we present a proof of Donaldson's Diagonalization Theorem via an abelian gauge-theoretic variant of the Seiberg-Witten equations for multiple spinors. Like the other proof of Donaldson's theorem using the standard…

Closed 3-string braids admit many bandings to two-bridge links. By way of the Montesinos Trick, this allows us to construct infinite families of knots in the connected sum of lens spaces L(r,1) # L(s,1) that admit a surgery to a lens space…

We show that all large enough positive integral surgeries on algebraic knots bound a 4-manifold with a negative definite plumbing tree, which we describe explicitly. Then we apply the lattice embedding obstruction coming from Donaldson's…