Related papers: The Stable Concordance Genus

Let $u(K)$ and $g(K)$ denote the unknotting number and the genus of a knot $K$, respectively. For a 3-braid knot $K$, we show that $u(K)\le g(K)$ holds, and that if $u(K)=g(K)$ then $K$ is either a 2-braid knot, a connected sum of two…

Kearton observed that mutation can change the concordance class of a knot. A close examination of his example reveals that it is of 4-genus 1 and has a mutant of 4-genus 0. The first goal of this paper is to construct examples to show that…

Let $M_K$ be the 2-fold branched cover of a knot $K in $S^3$. If $H_1(M_K) = {\bf Z}_3 \oplus {\bf Z}_{3^{2i}} \oplus G$ where 3 does not divide the order of $G$ then $K$ is not of order 4 in the concordance group. This obstruction detects…

We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group…

Ribbon concordance gives a partial order on knot types, and applying a knot homology functor to a ribbon concordance gives an inclusion of the homologies. The question of the existence of global ribbon minima in each concordance class is a…

The unknotting number of a knot is bounded from below by its slice genus. It is a well-known fact that the genera and unknotting numbers of torus knots coincide. In this note we characterize quasipositive knots for which the genus bound is…

The concordance crosscap number $\gamma_c(K)$ of a knot $K$ is the smallest crosscap number $\gamma_3(K')$ of any knot $K'$ concordant to $K$ (and with $\gamma_3(K')$ defined as the least first Betti number of any nonorientable surface…

Ozsvath and Szabo have defined a knot concordance invariant tau that bounds the 4-ball genus of a knot. Here we discuss shortcuts to its computation. We include examples of Alexander polynomial one knots for which the invariant is…

This paper, to be regularly updated, lists those prime knots with the fewest possible number of crossings for which values of basic knot invariants, such as the unknotting number or the smooth 4-genus, are unknown. This list is being…

It has been suggested recently that knots might exist as stable soliton solutions in a simple three-dimensional classical field theory, opening up a wide range of possible applications in physics and beyond. We have re-examined and extended…

The genus non-increasing totally positive unknotting number is the minimum number of crossing changes that transform a knot into the unknot, such that all the crossing changes are positive-to-negative crossing changes that do not increase…

In this paper, we introduce a new type of relation between knots called the descendant relation. One knot $H$ is a descendant of another knot $K$ if $H$ can be obtained from a minimal crossing diagram of $K$ by some number of crossing…

The knot concordance invariant Upsilon, recently defined by Ozsvath, Stipsicz, and Szabo, takes values in the group of piecewise linear functions on the closed interval [0,2]. This paper presents a description of one approach to defining…

Squeezed knots are those knots that appear as slices of genus-minimizing oriented smooth cobordisms between positive and negative torus knots. We show that this class of knots is large and discuss how to obstruct squeezedness. The most…

Concordance invariants of knots are derived from the instanton homology groups with local coefficients, as introduced in earlier work of the authors. These concordance invariants include a 1-parameter family of homomorphisms $f_{r}$, from…

A geometric argument is given to prove that the Seifert genus of a positive knot equals its slice genus. A combinatorial invariant, giving a lower bound for the slice genus, is formulated for arbitrary knots. Properties and applications of…

In this survey article, we discuss several different knot concordance invariants coming from the Heegaard Floer homology package of Ozsvath and Szabo. Along the way, we prove that if two knots are concordant, then their knot Floer complexes…

The non-orientable 4-genus of a knot in the 3-sphere is defined as the smallest first Betti number of any non-orientable surface smoothly and properly embedded in the 4-ball, with boundary the given knot. We compute the non-orientable…

Stable gonality is a multigraph parameter that measures the complexity of a graph. It is defined using maps to trees. Those maps, in some sense, divide the edges equally over the edges of the tree; stable gonality asks for the map with the…

An oriented link is positive if it has a link diagram whose crossings are all positive. An oriented link is almost positive if it is not positive and has a link diagram with exactly one negative crossing. It is known that the Rasmussen…