Related papers: Slice Implies Mutant Ribbon for Odd, 5-Stranded Pr…

We conjecture explicit evolution formulas for Khovanov polynomials for pretzel knots in some regions in the windings space. Our description is exhaustive for genera 1 and 2. As previously observed, evolution at T != -1 is not fully smooth:…

We study Kauffman's model of folded ribbon knots: knots made of a thin strip of paper folded flat in the plane. The folded ribbonlength is the length to width ratio of such a ribbon knot. We give upper bounds on the folded ribbonlength of…

An inscribed knot is formed by polygonally connecting points lying on a knot $\gamma$ in parametric order, then closing the path by connecting the first and final points. The stick-knot number of a knot type K is the minimum number of line…

We construct many examples of non-slice knots in 3-space that cannot be distinguished from slice knots by previously known invariants. Using Whitney towers in place of embedded disks, we define a geometric filtration of the 3-dimensional…

Double twist knots $K_{m, n}$ are known to be rationally slice if $mn = 0$, $n = -m\pm 1$, or $n = -m$. In this paper, we prove the converse. It is done by showing that infinitely many prime power-fold cyclic branched covers of the other…

We study q-holonomic sequences that arise as the colored Jones polynomial of knots in 3-space. The minimal-order recurrence for such a sequence is called the (non-commutative) A-polynomial of a knot. Using the "method of guessing", we…

We generalize the idea of unknotting knots to Seifert surfaces. We define an operation called ribbon twist which serves as the equivalent of a crossing change for knots. A Seifert surface is considered untwisted, the equivalent to…

The unknotting number of a knot is the minimum number of crossings one must change to turn that knot into the unknot. The algebraic unknotting number is the minimum number of crossing changes needed to transform a knot into an Alexander…

The concordance genus of a knot is the least genus of any knot in its concordance class. It is bounded above by the genus of the knot, and bounded below by the slice genus, two well-studied invariants. In this paper we consider the…

A closer look at an example introduced by Livingston & Melvin and later studied by Miyazaki shows that a plumbing of two fibered ribbon knots (along their fiber surfaces) may be algebraically slice yet not ribbon.

We define several equivariant concordance invariants using knot Floer homology. We show that our invariants provide a lower bound for the equivariant slice genus and use this to give a family of strongly invertible slice knots whose…

A branched twist spin is a generalization of twist spun knots, which appeared in the study of locally smooth circle actions on the $4$-sphere due to Montgomery, Yang, Fintushel and Pao. In this paper, we give a sufficient condition to…

In a previous paper, we introduced special types of fusions, so called simple-ribbon fusions on links. A knot obtained from the trivial knot by a finite sequence of simple-ribbon fusions is called a simple-ribbon knot. Every ribbon knot…

Let $M_K$ be the 2-fold branched cover of a knot $K in $S^3$. If $H_1(M_K) = {\bf Z}_3 \oplus {\bf Z}_{3^{2i}} \oplus G$ where 3 does not divide the order of $G$ then $K$ is not of order 4 in the concordance group. This obstruction detects…

We prove that all knots can be embedded into the Menger Sponge fractal. We prove that all Pretzel knots can be embedded into the Sierpinski Tetrahedron. Then we compare the number of iterations of each of these fractals needed to produce a…

Consider a dihedral cover $f: Y\to X$ with $X$ and $Y$ four-manifolds and $f$ branched along an oriented surface embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities. We prove that only a slice knot can arise as the unique singularity on an…

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…

We define cylinder knots as billiard knots in a cylinder. We present a necessary condition for cylinder knots: after dividing cylinder knots by possible rotational symmetries we obtain ribbon knots. We obtain an upper bound for the number…

A knot type is exchange reducible if an arbitrary closed n-braid representative can be changed to a closed braid of minimum braid index by a finite sequence of braid isotopies, exchange moves and +/- destabilizations. In the manuscript [J…

The (ordinary) unknotting-number of 1-dimensional knots, which is defined by using the crossing-change, is a very basic and important invariant. It is very natural to consider the `unknotting-number' associated with other local-moves on…