Related papers: On knots having zero negative unknotting number

We use Heegaard Floer homology to obtain bounds on unknotting numbers. This is a generalisation of Ozsvath and Szabo's obstruction to unknotting number one. We determine the unknotting numbers of 9_10, 9_13, 9_35, 9_38, 10_53, 10_101 and…

We show that the knots $K\in\{4_1,5_1\}$ can be paired with a corresponding knot $K^\prime$ such that $u(K\#K^\prime)<u(K)+u(K^\prime)$. As a consequence unknotting number fails to be additive for these knots. We also provide a candidate…

Let K' be a knot that admits no cosmetic crossing changes and let C be a non-trivial, prime, non-cable knot. Then any knot that is a satellite of C with winding number zero and pattern K' admits no cosmetic crossing changes. As 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…

We prove that 0 is a characterizing slope for infinitely many knots, namely the genus-1 knots whose knot Floer homology is 2-dimensional in the top Alexander grading, which we classified in recent work and which include all $(-3,3,2n+1)$…

Squeezed knots are those knots that appear as slices of genus-minimizing oriented smooth cobordisms between positive and negative torus knots. We show that this class of knots is large and discuss how to obstruct squeezedness. The most…

We construct two complete invariants of oriented classical knots in space. The value of each invariant on any knot is a set, infinite for the first invariant and finite for the second. The finite set is computed algorithmically from any…

Using elementary counting methods of weight systems for finite type invariants of knots and integral homology 3-spheres, in the spirit of [B-NG], we answer positively three questions raised in [Ga]. In particular, we exhibit a one-to-one…

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…

In this paper we introduce the notion of an unknotting index for virtual knots. We give some examples of computation by using writhe invariants, and discuss a relationship between the unknotting index and the virtual knot module. In…

Generalizing unknotting number, $n$-adjacent knots have $n$ crossings such that changing any non-empty subset of them results in the unknot. In this paper, we determine the 2-adjacent knots through 12 crossings. Using Heegaard Floer…

We prove that if the order of the first homology of the 2-fold branched cover of a knot K in the 3-sphere is given by pm where p is a prime congruent to 3 mod 4 and gcd(p,m) =1, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…

We consider a knot homotopy as a cylinder in 4-space. An ordinary triple point $p$ of the cylinder is called {\em coherent} if all three branches intersect at $p$ pairwise with the same index. A {\em triple unknotting} of a classical knot…

We explore under what conditions one can obtain a nontrivial knot, given a collection of $n$ vectors. First, we show how to get a crossing from any 3 vectors equal in magnitude, by arbitrarily picking 2 vectors and identifying the…

Let $p\geq 2$ and $q\neq 0$ an integer. A knot $K$ in the three-sphere is said to be a $(p,q)$-lens knot if and only if it covers a link in the lens space $L(p,q)$. In this paper, we use the second coefficient of the HOMFLY polynomial to…

We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere with 2-fold branched covering space M. If for some prime p congruent to 3 mod 4 the p-torsion in the first homology of M is cyclic with odd exponent, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…

A $\textit{knot}$ is a possibly wild simple closed curve in $S^3$. A knot $J$ is $\textit{semi-isotopic}$ to a knot $K$ if there is an annulus $A$ in $S^3\times[0,1]$ such that $A\cap(S^3\times\{0,1\})=\partial…

It has been suggested recently that knots might exist as stable soliton solutions in a simple three-dimensional classical field theory, opening up a wide range of possible applications in physics and beyond. We have re-examined and extended…

In this paper, we study a geometric/topological measure of knots and links called the nullification number. The nullification of knots/links is believed to be biologically relevant. For example, in DNA topology, one can intuitively regard…