Related papers: Even and odd Kauffman bracket ideals for genus-1 t…
We describe an action of the concordance group of knots in the three-sphere on concordances of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds. As an application we define the notion of almost-concordance between knots. After some basic results, we prove…
Given a closed four-manifold $X$ with an indefinite intersection form, we consider smoothly embedded surfaces in $X \setminus $int$(B^4)$, with boundary a knot $K \subset S^3$. We give several methods to bound the genus of such surfaces in…
We determine the structure of the Kauffman bracket skein module of the connected sum of two genus one handlebodies over the ring of Laurent polynomials $\mathbb Z[q^{\pm 1}]$, thereby proving a conjecture posed by the first and third…
We study Kirby problems 1.92(E)-(G), which, roughly speaking, ask for which compact oriented $3$-manifold $M$ the Kauffman bracket skein module $\mathcal{S}(M)$ has torsion as a $\mathbb{Z}[A^{\pm 1}]$-module. We give new criteria for the…
We model proteins with intramolecular bonds, such as disulfide bridges, using the concept of bonded knots -- closed loops in three-dimensional space equipped with additional bonds that connect different segments of the knot. We extend the…
We prove the boundedness theorem for Fano threefolds with log-terminal singularities of any fixed index. This is an improvement of our earlier result, where we required additionally that the variety is Q-factorial, with Picard number 1. The…
The most useful and interesting line bundles over algebraic curves of a very high genus have the ratio \delta of the degree to the genus close to half-integer values, usually \delta \approx 0, \delta \approx 1/2, or \delta \approx 1; the…
Previous work of the authors with Bus Jaco determined a lower bound on the complexity of cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds and showed that it is attained by the monodromy ideal triangulations of once-punctured torus bundles. This paper exhibits…
If a knot K bounds a genus one Seifert surface F in the 3-sphere and F contains an essential simple closed curve alpha that has induced framing 0 and is smoothly slice, then K is smoothly slice. Conjecturally, the converse holds. It is…
We offer a new construction of Lagrangian submanifolds for the Gopakumar-Vafa conjecture relating the Chern-Simons theory on the 3-sphere and the Gromov-Witten theory on the resolved conifold. Given a knot in the 3-sphere its conormal…
We prove that knots obtained by attaching a band to a split link satisfy the cabling conjecture. We also give new proofs that unknotting number one knots are prime and that genus is superadditive under band sum. Additionally, we prove a…
We show that the problem of determining whether a knot in the 3-sphere is non-trivial lies in NP. This is a consequence of the following more general result. The problem of determining whether the Thurston norm of a second homology class in…
A periodic tangle is a one-dimensional submanifold in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that has translational symmetry in one, two or three transverse directions. A periodic tangle can be seen as the universal cover of a link in the solid torus, the…
We recursively determine the homotopy type of the space of any irreducible framed link in the 3-sphere, modulo rotations. This leads us to the homotopy type of the space of any knot in the solid torus, thus answering a question posed by…
We find bases for naturally defined lattices over certain rings of integers in the SU(2)-TQFT-theory modules of surfaces. We consider the TQFT where the Kauffman's A variable is a root of unity of order four times an odd prime. As an…
We show that there exist infinitely many pairs of non-homeomorphic closed oriented SOL torus bundles with the same quantum (TQFT) invariants. This follows from the arithmetic behind the conjugacy problem in $SL(2,\Z)$ and its congruence…
The main purpose of this article is to classify contact structures on some 3-manifolds, namely lens spaces, most torus bundles over a circle, the solid torus, and the thickened torus T^2 x [0,1]. This classification completes earlier work…
We define non-ordinary instanton bundles on Fano threefolds $X$ extending the notion of (ordinary) instanton bundles. We determine a lower bound for the quantum number of a non-ordinary instanton bundle, i.e. the degree of its second Chern…
Using the Sasakian join construction with homology 3-spheres, we give a countably infinite number of examples of Sasakian manifolds with perfect fundamental group in all odd dimensions greater than 1. These have extremal Sasaki metrics with…
We consider the moduli spaces $\mathcal{M}_d(\ell)$ of a closed linkage with $n$ links and prescribed lengths $\ell\in \mathbb{R}^n$ in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space. For $d>3$ these spaces are no longer manifolds generically, but they…