Related papers: The unknotting number and classical invariants II
Given a knot K we introduce a new invariant coming from the Blanchfield pairing and we show that it gives a lower bound on the unknotting number of K. This lower bound subsumes the lower bounds given by the Levine-Tristram signatures, by…
The algebraic unknotting number u_a(K) of a knot K was introduced by Hitoshi Murakami. It equals the minimal number of crossing changes needed to turn K into an Alexander polynomial one knot. In a previous paper the authors used the…
This paper studies twisted signature invariants and twisted linking forms, with a view towards obstructions to knot concordance. Given a knot $K$ and a representation $\rho$ of the knot group, we define a twisted signature function…
The unknotting number is the classical invariant of a knot. However, its determination is difficult in general. To obtain the unknotting number from definition one has to investigate all possible diagrams of the knot. We tried to show the…
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…
In this note we use Blanchfield forms to study knots that can be turned into an unknot using a single $\overline{t}_{2k}$ move.
New lower bounds on the unknotting number of a knot are constructed from the classical knot signature function. These bounds can be twice as strong as previously known signature bounds. They can also be stronger than known bounds arising…
Several classical knot invariants, such as the Alexander polynomial, the Levine-Tristram signature and the Blanchfield pairing, admit natural extensions from knots to links, and more generally, from oriented links to so-called colored…
We demonstrate that the equivariant unknotting number $\widetilde{u}(K)$ of a strongly invertible knot $K$ is bounded below by the $H$-torsion order $\widetilde{\mathrm{ord}}(K)$ of the involutive Bar-Natan homology…
We establish homotopy ribbon concordance obstructions coming from the Blanchfield form and Levine-Tristram signatures. Then, as an application of twisted Alexander polynomials, we show that for every knot K with nontrivial Alexander…
Let $\nu$ be either the Ozsv\'ath-Szab\'o $\tau$-invariant or the Rasmussen $s$-invariant, suitably normalized. For a knot $K$, Livingston and Naik defined the invariant $t_\nu(K)$ to be the minimum of $k$ for which $\nu$ of the $k$-twisted…
This paper describes how to compute algorithmically certain twisted signature invariants of a knot $K$ using twisted Blanchfield forms. An illustration of the algorithm is implemented on $(2,q)$-torus knots. Additionally, using satellite…
We study the band-unknotting number $u_{nb}(K)$ of a knot $K$, and how it behaves with respect to connect sums. We show that this sub-additive function is not additive under connected sums, by finding infinitely many examples of knots $K_1,…
We use the Blanchfield form to obtain a lower bound on the equivariant slice genus of a strongly invertible knot. For our main application, let $K$ be a genus one strongly invertible slice knot with nontrivial Alexander polynomial. We show…
Given a knot K in S^3, let u^-(K) (respectively, u^+(K)) denote the minimum number of negative (respectively, positive) crossing changes among all unknotting sequences for K. We use knot Floer homology to construct the invariants l^-(K),…
We show that for any nontrivial knot $K$ and any natural number $n$ there is a diagram $D$ of $K$ such that the unknotting number of $D$ is greater than or equal to $n$. It is well known that twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than…
This is the first paper in a series of three devoted to studying twisted linking forms of knots and three-manifolds. Its function is to provide the algebraic foundations for the next two papers by describing how to define and calculate…
We show that the order of torsion homology classes in Bar-Natan deformation of Khovanov homology is a lower bound for the unknotting number. We give examples of knots that this is a better lower bound than |s(K)/2|, where s(K) is the…
We study how the equivariant signature of strongly invertible knots changes when one of the Boyle-Chen equivariant unknotting moves is applied. It follows form our results that the absolute value of the equivariant signature introduced by…
Given a diagram D of a knot K, we give easily computable bounds for Rasmussen's concordance invariant s(K). The bounds are not independent of the diagram D chosen, but we show that for diagrams satisfying a given condition the bounds are…