Related papers: Knotted handle decomposing spheres for handlebody-…
We give the first examples of a pair of knots $K_1$,$K_2$ in the 3-sphere for which their unknotting numbers satisfy $u(K_1\#K_2)<u(K_1)+u(K_2)$ . This answers question 1.69(B) from Kirby's problem list, "Problems in low-dimensional…
We introduce the concept of a standard form for two embedded maximal sphere systems in the doubled handlebody, and we prove an existence and uniqueness result. In particular, we show that pairs of maximal sphere systems in the doubled…
A polytope is called indecomposable if it cannot be expressed nontrivially as a Minkowski sum of other polytopes. Since Gale introduced the concept in 1954, several increasingly strong criteria have been developed to characterize…
Auckly gave two examples of irreducible integer homology spheres (one toroidal and one hyperbolic) which are not surgery on a knot in the three-sphere. Using Heegaard Floer homology, the authors and Karakurt provided infinitely many small…
We consider oriented knots and links in a handlebody of genus $g$ through appropriate braid representatives in $S^3$, which are elements of the braid groups $B_{g,n}$. We prove a geometric version of the Markov theorem for braid equivalence…
We prove that the fundamental group of any integer homology 3-sphere different from the 3-sphere admits irreducible representations of its fundamental group in SL(2,C). For hyperbolic integer homology spheres this comes with the definition,…
One strategy for distinguishing smooth structures on closed $4$-manifolds is to produce a knot $K$ in $S^3$ that is slice in one smooth filling $W$ of $S^3$ but not slice in some homeomorphic smooth filling $W'$. In this paper we explore…
We classify nonnegatively curved simply connected 4-manifolds with circle symmetry up to equivariant diffeomorphisms. The main problem is rule out knotted curves in the singular set of the orbit space. As an extension of this work we…
We construct an enhanced version of knot contact homology, and show that we can deduce from it the group ring of the knot group together with the peripheral subgroup. In particular, it completely determines a knot up to smooth isotopy. The…
We study relations between unknotting number and crossing number of a spatial embedding of a handcuff-graph and a theta curve. It is well known that for any non-trivial knot $K$ twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than or equal to…
We construct a mixed invariant of non-orientable surfaces from the Lee and Bar-Natan deformations of Khovanov homology and use it to distinguish pairs of surfaces bounded by the same knot, including some exotic examples.
We extend knot contact homology to a theory over the ring $\mathbb{Z}[\lambda^{\pm 1},\mu^{\pm 1}]$, with the invariant given topologically and combinatorially. The improved invariant, which is defined for framed knots in $S^3$ and can be…
Suppose that a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$ admits a finite surgery, Boyer and Zhang proved that the surgery slope must be either integral or half-integral, and they conjectured that the latter case does not happen. Using the correction terms…
In an earlier paper, we introduced a knot invariant for a null-homologous knot K in an oriented three-manifold Y, which is closely related to the Heegaard Floer homology of Y. In this paper we investigate some properties of these knot…
The topology of Stein surfaces and contact 3-manifolds is studied by means of handle decompositions. A simple characterization of homeomorphism types of Stein surfaces is obtained --- they correspond to open handlebodies with all handles of…
We show that for a hyperbolic knot complement, all but at most 12 Dehn fillings are irreducible with infinite word-hyperbolic fundamental group.
A handlebody link is a union of handlebodies of positive genus embedded in 3-space, which generalizes the notion of links in classical knot theory. In this paper, we consider handlebody links with one genus 2 handlebody and $n-1$ solid…
Given a rational homology sphere which bounds rational homology balls, we investigate the complexity of these balls as measured by the number of 1-handles in a handle decomposition. We use Casson-Gordon invariants to obtain lower bounds…
Using elementary counting methods of weight systems for finite type invariants of knots and integral homology 3-spheres, in the spirit of [B-NG], we answer positively three questions raised in [Ga]. In particular, we exhibit a one-to-one…
We show that, for any positive real number, there exists a knot in the 3-sphere admitting a pair of boundary slopes whose difference is at most the given number.