Related papers: Knots without cosmetic crossings
We prove that a positive two-bridge knot other than the $(2,k)$ torus knot does not admit chirally cosmetic surgeries, a pair of Dehn surgeries along distinct slopes yielding orientation-reversingly homeomorphic 3-manifolds.
A well-known algorithm for unknotting knots involves traversing a knot diagram and changing each crossing that is first encountered from below. The minimal number of crossings changed in this way across all diagrams for a knot is called the…
Every knot can be embedded in the union of finitely many half planes with a common boundary line in such a way that the portion of the knot in each half plane is a properly embedded arc. The minimal number of such half planes is called the…
Let $K, K'$ be ribbon knottings of $n$-spheres with $1$-handles in $S^{n+2}$, $n\geq 2$. We show that if the knot quandles of these knots are isomorphic, then the ribbon knottings are stably equivalent, in the sense of Nakanishi and…
We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…
It is well known that there exist knots with Seifert surfaces of arbitrarily high genus. In this paper, we show the existence of infinitely many knot exteriors where each of which has longitudinal essential surfaces of any positive genus…
We use Heegaard Floer homology to give obstructions to unknotting a knot with a single crossing change. These restrictions are particularly useful in the case where the knot in question is alternating. As an example, we use them to classify…
We determine p-colorability of the paradromic rings. These rings arise by generalizing the well-known experiment of bisecting a Mobius strip. Instead of joining the ends with a single half twist, use $m$ twists, and, rather than bisecting…
We consider homologically essential simple closed curves on Seifert surfaces of genus one knots in $S^3$, and in particular those that are unknotted or slice in $S^3$. We completely characterize all such curves for most twist knots: they…
For a given knot $K$ and $w>0$, we construct infinitely many mutually distinct hyperbolic knots $\{K_i\}$ such that the $P$-satellites of $K$ and $K_i$ have the same HOMFLY polynomial up to given $z$-degrees, for all braided patterns $P$…
Let $M_n$ be the topological moduli space of all parallel n-cables of long framed oriented knots in 3-space. We construct in a combinatorial way for each natural number $n>1$ a 1-cocycle $R_n$ which represents a non trivial class in…
We determine a wide class of knots, which includes unknotting number one knots, within which Khovanov homology detects the unknot. A corollary is that the Khovanov homology of many satellite knots, including the Whitehead double, detects…
Let $\Sigma_0,\Sigma_1$ be closed oriented surfaces. Two oriented knots $K_0 \subset \Sigma_0 \times [0,1]$ and $K_1 \subset \Sigma_1 \times [0,1]$ are said to be (virtually) concordant if there is a compact oriented $3$-manifold $W$ and a…
A pretzel knot $K$ is called $odd$ if all its twist parameters are odd, and $mutant$ $ribbon$ if it is mutant to a simple ribbon knot. We prove that the family of odd, 5-stranded pretzel knots satisfies a weaker version of the Slice-Ribbon…
Introducing a way to modify knots using $n$-trivial rational tangles, we show that knots with given values of Vassiliev invariants of bounded degree can have arbitrary unknotting number (extending a recent result of Ohyama, Taniyama and…
Let $K$ be a nontrivial knot in $S^{3}$ and $t(K)$ its tunnel number. For any $(p\geq 2,q)$-slope in the torus boundary of a closed regular neighborhood of $ K$ in $S^{3}$, denoted by $K^{\star}$, it is a nontrivial cable knot in $S^{3}$.…
Twisting a knot $K$ in $S^3$ along a disjoint unknot $c$ produces a twist family of knots $\{K_n\}$ indexed by the integers. Comparing the behaviors of the Seifert genus $g(K_n)$ and the slice genus $g_4(K_n)$ under twistings, we prove that…
Steinhaus conjectured that every closed oriented $C^1$-curve has a pair of anti-parallel tangents. Porter disproved the conjecture by showing that there exist curves with no anti-parallel tangents. Colin Adams rised the question of whether…
The alternating knots, links and twists projected on the $S_2$ sphere were identified with the phase space of a Hamiltonian dynamic system of one degree of freedom. The saddles of the system correspond to the crossings, the edges correspond…
Two Dehn surgeries on a knot are called purely cosmetic if their surgered manifolds are homeomorphic as oriented manifolds. Gordon conjectured that non-trivial knots in $S^3$ do not admit purely cosmetic surgeries. In this article, we…