Related papers: Knots and surfaces
The aim of this survey article is to highlight several notoriously intractable problems about knots and links, as well as to provide a brief discussion of what is known about them.
This is a short expository article on alternating knots and is to appear in the Concise Encyclopedia of Knot Theory.
We construct a new type of geometric knot theory, plumbers' knots, and solve the problems of distinguishing and enumerating such knots at a fixed level of complexity. (v2) Minor edits, added theorem 3.18. (v3) Substantial revisions,…
In this paper, we describe the relation between the study of closed connected surfaces embedded in $S^3$ and the theory of handlebody-knots. By Fox's theorem, a pair of handlebody-knots is associated to a closed connected surface embedded…
We show that a knot in $S^3$ with an infinite number of distinct incompressible Seifert surfaces contains a closed incompressible surface in its complement.
This is a survey paper on algorithms for solving problems in 3-dimensional topology. In particular, it discusses Haken's approach to the recognition of the unknot, and recent variations.
We study near-alternating links whose diagrams satisfy conditions generalized from the notion of semi-adequate links. We extend many of the results known for adequate knots relating their colored Jones polynomials to the topology of…
This paper formulates a generalization of our work on quantum knots to explain how to make quantum versions of algebraic, combinatorial and topological structures. We include a description of previous work on the construction of Hilbert…
We give a survey of geometric approaches to the topological 4-dimensional surgery and 5-dimensional s-cobordism conjectures, with a focus on the study of surfaces in 4-manifolds. The geometric lemma underlying these conjectures is a…
Ng constructed an invariant of knots in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$, a combinatorial knot contact homology. Extending his study, we construct an invariant of surface-knots in ${\mathbb{R}}^4$ using diagrams in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$.
We introduce and study knotoids. Knotoids are represented by diagrams in a surface which differ from the usual knot diagrams in that the underlying curve is a segment rather than a circle. Knotoid diagrams are considered up to Reidemeister…
These notes are an introduction to knot theory from the perspective of surfaces. The notes cover fundamental concepts such as isotopies, Reidemeister moves, torus knots, and (orientable, connected) surfaces with one boundary component. They…
The more recent paper "Generic strange duality for K3 surfaces" by the authors contains stronger results.
This paper examines the relationship between the knotting of an embedded surface in $\R^3$ and the knotting of its fold curves, formed by the singular set of projection to a plane. The first result shows that every surface, no matter how…
We give a description of all (1,2)-knots in S^3 which admit a closed meridionally incompressible surface of genus 2 in their complement. That is, we give several constructions of (1,2)-knots having a meridionally incompressible surface of…
Holonomy invariants in strict higher gauge theory have been studied in depth, aiming to applications to higher Chern-Simons theory. For a flat 2-connection, the holonomy of surface knots of arbitrary genus has been defined and its…
A knitted surface is a surface with or without closed components smoothly properly embedded in $D^2 \times B^2$, which is a generalization of a braided surface. A knitted surface is called a 2-dimensional knit if its boundary is the closure…
The Slope Conjecture relates the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot to boundary slopes of incompressible surfaces. Our aim is to prove the Slope Conjecture for Montesinos knots, and to match parameters of a state-formula for…
We give a topological characterisation of alternating knot exteriors based on the presence of special spanning surfaces. This shows that alternating is a topological property of the knot exterior and not just a property of diagrams,…
This paper investigates the exotic phenomena exhibited by links of disconnected surfaces with boundary that are properly embedded in the 4-ball. Our main results provide two different constructions of exotic pairs of surface links that are…