Related papers: A Sliceness Criterion for Odd Free Knots
In this note we show that ribbon concordance forms a partial ordering on the set of knots, answering a question of Gordon. The proof makes use of representation varieties of the knot groups to $SO(N)$ and relations between them induced by a…
It has long been known that the quadratic term in the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot is bounded above in terms of the crossing number of the knot. We show that this bound is sharp if and only if the knot is adequate. As an…
There are infinitely many pretzel links with the same Alexander polynomial (actually with trivial Alexander polynomial). By contrast, in this note we revisit the Jones polynomial of pretzel links and prove that, given a natural number S,…
Given a knot or link in the form of plat closure of a braid, we describe an algorithm to obtain a braid representing the same knot or link with the standard closure, and vice-versa. We analyze the three cases of knots and links: in…
A knot K in the 3-sphere is superslice if there is a slice disk D in the 4-ball such that the double of D along K is the unknotted 2-sphere S in $S^4$. Answering a question of Livingston-Meier, we find smoothly slice (in fact doubly slice)…
Ropelength and embedding thickness are related measures of geometric complexity of classical knots and links in Euclidean space. In their recent work, Freedman and Krushkal posed a question regarding lower bounds for embedding thickness of…
Both classical and virtual knots arise as formal Gauss diagrams modulo some abstract moves corresponding to Reidemeister moves. If we forget about both over/under crossings structure and writhe numbers of knots modulo the same Reidemeister…
The topological underpinnings are presented for a new algorithm which answers the question: `Is a given knot the unknot?' The algorithm uses the braid foliation technology of Bennequin and of Birman and Menasco. The approach is to consider…
This article addresses the solvability of the multi-dimensional divergence-curl problem with a no-slip boundary condition. A solvability criterion is derived as an orthogonality condition of the vorticity function to pseudo-harmonic fields.…
Given a knot in $S^3$, one can associate to it a surface diffeomorphism in two different ways. First, an arbitrary knot in $S^{3}$ can be represented by braids, which can be thought of as diffeomorphisms of punctured disks. Second, if the…
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…
The slope conjecture gives a precise relation between the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot and the boundary slopes of essential surfaces in the knot complement. In this note we propose a generalization of the slope…
We discuss the possibility of the existence of finite algorithms that may give distinct knot classes. In particular we present two attempts for such algorithms which seem promising, one based on knot projections on a plane, the other on…
Given a linear ordering of the vertices of a graph, the cutwidth of a vertex $v$ with respect to this ordering is the number of edges from any vertex before $v$ (including $v$) to any vertex after $v$ in this ordering. The cutwidth of an…
We study surface knots in 4-space by using generic planar projections. These projections have fold points and cusps as their singularities and the image of the singular point set divides the plane into several regions. The width (or the…
In general, the bridge index of a knot is less than or equal to its braid index. A natural question is when these two values coincide. Motivated by a conjecture of Krishna and Morton, we prove that the bridge index and the braid index…
The doubly slice genus of a knot in the 3-sphere is the minimal genus among unknotted orientable surfaces in the 4-sphere for which the knot arises as a cross-section. We use the classical signature function of the knot to give a new lower…
Simple closed curves in the plane can be mapped to nontrivial knots under the action of origami foldings that allow the paper to self-intersect. We show all tame knot types may be produced in this manner, motivating the development of a new…
We use d invariants of the 2-fold branched cover to show nonsliceness of a set of algebraically slice knots.
Traditionally, knot theorists have considered projections of knots where there are two strands meeting at every crossing. A multi-crossing is a crossing where more than two strands meet at a single point, such that each strand bisects the…