Related papers: The pillowcase and perturbations of traceless repr…
We define an elementary relatively $\mathbb Z/4$ graded Lagrangian-Floer chain complex for restricted immersions of compact 1-manifolds into the pillowcase, and apply it to the intersection diagram obtained by taking traceless $SU(2)$…
We describe a scheme for constructing generating sets for Kronheimer and Mrowka's singular instanton knot homology for the case of knots in lens spaces. The scheme involves Heegaard-splitting a lens space containing a knot into two solid…
For a diagram of a 2-stranded tangle in the 3-ball we define a twisted complex of compact Lagrangians in the triangulated envelope of the Fukaya category of the smooth locus of the pillowcase. We show that this twisted complex is a…
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,…
If a link $L$ can be decomposed into the union of two tangles $T\cup_{S^2} S$ along a 2-sphere intersecting $L$ in 4 points, then the intersections of perturbed traceless SU(2) character varieties of tangles in a space called the pillowcase…
Given a 2-stranded tangle in a $\ZZ/2$ homology ball, $T\subset Y$, we investigate the character variety $R(Y,T)$ of conjugacy classes of traceless SU(2) representations of $\pi_1(Y\setminus T)$. In particular we completely determine the…
The earring tangle consists of four strands 4pt x [0,1] inside S^2 x [0,1] and one meridian around one of the strands. Equipping this tangle with a nontrivial SO(3) bundle, we show that its traceless SU(2) flat moduli space is topologically…
The conormal Lagrangian $L_K$ of a knot $K$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ is the submanifold of the cotangent bundle $T^* \mathbb{R}^3$ consisting of covectors along $K$ that annihilate tangent vectors to $K$. By intersecting with the unit cotangent…
We prove that the restriction map from the subspace of regular points of the holonomy perturbed SU(2) traceless flat moduli space of a tangle in a 3-manifold to the traceless flat moduli space of its boundary marked surface is a Lagrangian…
We associate several invariants to a knot in an integer homology 3-sphere using $SU(2)$ singular instanton gauge theory. There is a space of framed singular connections for such a knot, equipped with a circle action and an equivariant…
Fix a knot $K_0$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and consider a Lagrangian submanifold $L$ of $T^*\mathbb{R}^3$ that is isotopic to the conormal bundle of $K_0$ by a compactly supported Hamiltonian isotopy and intersects the zero section $\mathbb{R}^3$…
There have been a number of constructions of Lagrangian Floer homology invariants for $3$-manifolds defined in terms of symplectic character varieties arising from Heegaard splittings. With the aim of establishing an Atiyah-Floer…
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…
Kronheimer and Mrowka asked whether the difference between the four-dimensional clasp number and the slice genus can be arbitrarily large. This question is answered affirmatively by studying a knot invariant derived from equivariant…
There are several knot invariants in the literature that are defined using singular instantons. Such invariants provide strong tools to study the knot group and give topological applications. For instance, it gives powerful tools to study…
We introduce an invariant of tangles in Khovanov homology by considering a natural inverse system of Khovanov homology groups. As application, we derive an invariant of strongly invertible knots; this invariant takes the form of a graded…
The traceless $SU(2)$ character variety $R(S^2,\{a_i,b_i\}_{i=1}^n)$ of a $2n$-punctured 2-sphere is the symplectic reduction of a Hamiltonian $n$-torus action on the $SU(2)$ character variety of a closed surface of genus $n$. It is…
We show that the knot group of any knot in any integer homology sphere admits a non-abelian representation into $SU(3)$ such that meridians are mapped to matrices whose eigenvalues are the three distinct third roots of unity. This answers…
We prove that Khovanov homology detects the trefoils. Our proof incorporates an array of ideas in Floer homology and contact geometry. It uses open books; the contact invariants we defined in the instanton Floer setting; a bypass exact…
Some years ago, it was conjectured by the first author that the Chern-Simons perturbation theory of a 3-manifold at the trivial flat connection is a resurgent power series. We describe completely the resurgent structure of the above series…