Related papers: Infinitely many knots admitting the same integer s…
In an earlier paper, we used the absolute grading on Heegaard Floer homology to give restrictions on knots in $S^3$ which admit lens space surgeries. The aim of the present article is to exhibit stronger restrictions on such knots, arising…
We show that on any hyperbolic knot in $S^3$ there is at most one non-integral Dehn surgery which yields a manifold containing an incompressible torus.
We give two infinite families of examples of closed, orientable, irreducible 3-manifolds $M$ such that $b_1(M)=1$ and $\pi_1(M)$ has weight 1, but $M$ is not the result of Dehn surgery along a knot in the 3-sphere. This answers a question…
For the purposes of this paper, Dehn surgery along a curve K in a 3-manifold M with slope r is `exceptional' if the resulting 3-manifold M_K(r) is reducible or a solid torus, or the core of the surgery solid torus has finite order in the…
The cosmetic surgery conjecture predicts that for a non-trivial knot in the three-sphere, performing two different Dehn surgeries results in distinct oriented three-manifolds. Hanselman reduced the problem to $\pm 2$ or $\pm 1/n$ surgeries…
We consider knots equipped with a representation of their knot groups onto a dihedral group D_{2n} (where n is odd). To each such knot there corresponds a closed 3-manifold, the (irregular) dihedral branched covering space, with the…
Which slopes can or cannot appear as Seifert fibered slopes for hyperbolic knots in the 3-sphere S^3? It is conjectured that if r-surgery on a hyperbolic knot in S^3 yields a Seifert fiber space, then r is an integer. We show that for each…
A 4-manifold is constructed with some curious metric properties; or maybe it is many 4-manifolds masquerading as one, which would explain why it looks curious. Anyway, knots in the 3-sphere with complete finite volume hyperbolic metrics on…
We prove that 1) There exist infinitely many non-trivial codimension one "thick" knots in $\mathbb{R}^5$; 2) For each closed four-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ and for each sufficiently small positive $\epsilon$ the set of isometry…
Although there are infinitely many knots with superbridge index n for every even integer n>2, there are only finitely many knots with superbridge index 3.
We survey aspects of classical combinatorial sutured manifold theory and show how they can be adapted to study exceptional Dehn fillings and 2-handle additions. As a consequence we show that if a hyperbolic knot $\beta$ in a compact,…
We consider the existence of simple closed geodesics or "geodesic knots" in finite volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Previous results show that at least one geodesic knot always exists [Bull. London Math. Soc. 31(1) (1999) 81-86],…
For each rational homology 3-sphere $Y$ which bounds simply connected definite 4-manifolds of both signs, we construct an infinite family of irreducible rational homology 3-spheres which are homology cobordant to $Y$ but cannot bound any…
Suppose that a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$ admits a finite surgery, Boyer and Zhang proved that the surgery slope must be either integral or half-integral, and they conjectured that the latter case does not happen. Using the correction terms…
A knot in the 3-sphere is called an L-space knot if it admits a nontrivial Dehn surgery yielding an L-space, i.e. a rational homology 3-sphere with the smallest possible Heegaard Floer homology. Given a knot K, take an unknotted circle c…
In this article, we construct infinitley many simply connected, nonsymplectic and pairwise nondiffeomorphic 4-manifolds starting from E(n) and applying the sequence of knot surgery, ordinary blowups and rational blowdown. We also compute…
For every integer $g\ge 2$ we construct 3-dimensional genus-$g$ 1-handlebodies smoothly embedded in $S^4$ with the same boundary, and which are defined by the same cut systems of their boundary, yet which are not isotopic rel. boundary via…
The cosmetic crossing conjecture (also known as the "nugatory crossing conjecture") asserts that the only crossing changes that preserve the oriented isotopy class of a knot in the 3-sphere are nugatory. We use the Dehn surgery…
Conjecturally, there are only finitely many Heegaard Floer L-space knots in $S^3$ of a given genus. We examine this conjecture for twist families of knots $\{K_n\}$ obtained by twisting a knot $K$ in $S^3$ along an unknot $c$ in terms of…
In this article, we demonstrate that for any positive integer $n$, the knot surgery $4$-manifold $E(n)_K$ has a handle decomposition without $1$- and $3$-handles. Here, $K$ represents either a fibered two-bridge knot $C(2\epsilon_1,…