Related papers: Infinitely many knots admitting the same integer s…
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…
This thesis is concerned with the question of when the double branched cover of an alternating knot can arise by Dehn surgery on a knot in $S^3$. We approach this problem using a surgery obstruction, first developed by Greene, which…
Any knot in $S^3$ may be reduced to a slice knot by crossing changes. Indeed, this slice knot can be taken to be the unknot. In this paper we study the question of when the same holds for knots in homology spheres. We show that a knot in a…
This paper gives a proof that the fundamental group of a class of closed orientable 3-manifolds constructed from three injective handlebodies has a solvable word problem. This is done by giving an algorithm to decide if a closed curve in…
It is proved that every knot in the major subfamilies of J. Berge's lens space surgery (i.e., knots yielding a lens space by Dehn surgery) is presented by an L-shaped (real) plane curve as a "divide knot" defined by N. A'Campo in the…
It is known by the author that there exist 20 families of Dehn surgeries in the Poincar\'e homology sphere yielding lens spaces. In this paper, we give the concrete knot diagrams of the families and extend them to families of lens space…
A fixed knot $K$ acts via Murasugi sum on the space $\mathcal{S}$ of isotopy classes of knots. This operation endows $\mathcal{S}$ with a directed graph structure denoted by $M\kern-1pt SG(K)$. We show that any given family of knots in…
We produce embeddings of knots in thin position that admit compressible thin levels. We also find the bridge number of tangle sums where each tangle is high distance.
The image of a polygonal knot K under a spherical inversion of R^3 (union infinity) is a simple closed curve made of arcs of circles, having the same knot type as the mirror image of K. Suppose we reconnect the vertices of the inverted…
For each connected alternating tangle, we provide an infinite family of non-left-orderable L-spaces. This gives further support for Conjecture [3] of Boyer, Gordon, and Watson that is a rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only…
Baker showed that 10 of the 12 classes of Berge knots are obtained by surgery on the minimally twisted 5-chain link. In this article we enumerate all hyperbolic knots in S^3 obtained by surgery on the minimally twisted 5 chain link that…
We prove for the first time that knot Floer homology and Khovanov homology can detect non-fibered knots, and that HOMFLY homology detects infinitely many such knots; these theories were previously known to detect a mere six knots, all…
Using the techniques on annulus twists, we observe that $6_3$ has infinitely many non-characterizing slopes, which affirmatively answers a question by Baker and Motegi. Furthermore, we prove that the knots $6_2$, $6_3$, $7_6$, $7_7$, $8_1$,…
We derive new existence results for tight contact structures on certain 3-manifolds which can be presented as surgery along specific knots in S^3. Indeed, we extend our earlier results on knots with maximal Thurston-Bennequin number being…
In this paper, we define the primitive/Seifert-fibered property for a knot in S^3. If satisfied, the property ensures that the knot has a Dehn surgery that yields a small Seifert-fibered space (i.e. base S^2 and three or fewer critical…
We investigate the operation of torus surgery on tori embedded in $S^4$. Key questions include which 4-manifolds can be obtained in this way, and the uniqueness of such descriptions. As an application we construct embeddings of 3-manifolds…
We construct the first examples of asymmetric L-space knots in $S^3$. More specifically, we exhibit a construction of hyperbolic knots in $S^3$ with both (i) a surgery that may be realized as a surgery on a strongly invertible link such…
Let $K$ be a null-homologous knot in a three-manifold $Y$. We give a description of the Heegaard Floer homology of integer surgeries on $Y$ along $K$ in terms of the filtered homotopy type of the knot invariant for $K$. As an illustration,…
This paper computes the Jones polynomial and the invariants obstructing cosmetic surgery which are derived from it for two infinite families of knots, proving they satisfy the Purely Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture. Both the method of…
A crucial step in the surgery-theoretic program to classify smooth manifolds is that of representing a middle--dimensional homology class by a smoothly embedded sphere. This step fails even for the simple 4-manifolds obtained from the…