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For a knot $K$ the cube number is a knot invariant defined to be the smallest $n$ for which there is a cube diagram of size $n$ for $K$. There is also a Legendrian version of this invariant called the \emph{Legendrian cube number}. We will…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2010-12-22 Ben McCarty

We use the knot filtration on the Heegaard Floer complex to define an integer invariant tau(K) for knots. Like the classical signature, this invariant gives a homomorphism from the knot concordance group to Z. As such, it gives lower bounds…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-11-11 Peter Ozsvath , Zoltan Szabo

The perturbed Alexander invariant $\rho_1$, defined by Bar-Natan and van der Veen, is a powerful, easily computable polynomial knot invariant with deep connections to the Alexander and colored Jones polynomials. We study the behavior of…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-11-07 Joe Boninger

Any knot diagram can be transformed into the unknot by a series of unknotting operations. This paper introduces the diagonal move, a novel unknotting operation that generalizes and unifies several existing moves. We prove that the diagonal…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-03-19 Danish Ali , Zhiqing Yang , Mohd Ibrahim Sheikh , Sidra Batool

In this article, we define an independence system for a classical knot diagram and prove that the independence system is a knot invariant for alternating knots. We also discuss the exchange property for minimal unknotting sets. Finally, we…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-03-05 Usman Ali , Iffat Fida Hussain

We demonstrate that the equivariant unknotting number $\widetilde{u}(K)$ of a strongly invertible knot $K$ is bounded below by the $H$-torsion order $\widetilde{\mathrm{ord}}(K)$ of the involutive Bar-Natan homology…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-04-13 KeeTaek Kim

The cosmetic crossing conjecture posits that switching a non-trivial crossing in a knot diagram always changes the knot type. Generalizing work of Balm, Friedl, Kalfagianni and Powell, and of Lidman and Moore, we give an Alexander…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2024-07-29 Joe Boninger

For every odd integer $c\ge 21$, we raise an example of a prime component-preservingly amphicheiral link with the minimal crossing number $c$. The link has two components, and consists of an unknot and a knot which is $(-)$-amphicheiral…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2015-03-12 Teruhisa Kadokami , Yoji Kobatake

In this note we give concise formulas, which lead to a simple and fast computer program that computes a powerful knot invariant. This invariant $\rho_1$ is not new, yet our formulas are by far the simplest and fastest: given a knot we write…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2024-04-16 Dror Bar-Natan , Roland van der Veen

We introduce a new numerical knot invariant, termed the \textit{segment number}, which is derived from partitioned knot diagrams subject to specific over/under-crossing constraints. We prove that a knot is non-trivial if and only if its…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-02-19 Makoto Ozawa

Murasugi discovered two criteria that must be satisfied by the Alexander polynomial of a periodic knot. We generalize these to the case of twisted Alexander polynomials. Examples demonstrate the application of these new criteria, including…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-02-26 Jonathan A Hillman , Charles Livingston , Swatee Naik

In this paper, we define a lassoing on a link, a local addition of a trivial knot to a link. Let K be an s-component link with the Conway polynomial non-zero. Let L be a link which is obtained from K by r-iterated lassoings. The complete…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2011-01-04 Ayaka Shimizu

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…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2020-09-09 Stanislav Jabuka , Tynan Kelly

We introduce two numerical invariants, the waist and the trunk of knots. The waist of a closed incompressible surface in the complement of a knot is defined as the minimal intersection number of all compressing disks for the surface in the…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-06-01 Makoto Ozawa

This paper concerns the H(2)-unknotting numbers of links related to 2-bridge links. It consists of three parts. In the first part, we consider a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-bridge link to have H(2)-unknotting number one. The…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2011-04-25 Yuanyuan Bao

Knot mosaics are used to model physical quantum states. The mosaic number of a knot is the smallest integer $m$ such that the knot can be represented as a knot $m$-mosaic. In this paper we establish an upper bound for the crossing number of…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2018-05-29 Hugh Howards , Andrew Kobin

Symmetries of knots have been studied extensively, and strongly invertible knots are one of them. Lamm defined the equivariant crossing number $c_t(K)$, the minimum crossing number among all symmetric diagrams for a strongly invertible knot…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2023-04-04 Jundai Nanasawa

We introduce the notion of slice depth of a 2-knot K, which is the minimal integer n such that K is n-slice. We give an upper bound for the slice depth of the n-twist spin of a classical knot which belongs to several specific classes,…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-09-24 Ayaka Ise

Twisted torus knots are torus knots with some full twists added along some number of adjacent strands. There are infinitely many known examples of twisted torus knots which are actually torus knots. We give eight more infinite families of…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2021-08-26 Sangyop Lee , Thiago de Paiva

We present two families of knots which have straight number higher than crossing number. In the case of the second family, we have computed the straight number explicitly. We also give a general theorem about alternating knots that states…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2018-05-18 Nicholas Owad