Related papers: Characterizing Dehn surgeries on links via trisect…
For a 3-manifold with torus boundary admitting an appropriate involution, we show that Khovanov homology provides obstructions to certain exceptional Dehn fillings. For example, given a strongly invertible knot in S^3, we give obstructions…
The Chern-Simons (CS) theory in three dimensions with a compact gauge group G is studied. Starting from the BRST quantization of the theory defined in R^3, the values of gauge invariants observables are computed in any closed and orientable…
In a talk at the Cornell Topology Festival in 2005, W. Thurston discussed a graph which we call "The Big Dehn Surgery Graph", B. Here we explore this graph, particularly the link of S^3, and prove facts about the geometry and topology of B.…
Earlier work with Robert Gompf and Abigail Thompson classified, via a natural slope indexed by the rationals, all two-component links which contain the square knot and from which $(S^1 \times S^2) \# (S^1 \times S^2)$ can be obtained by…
We utilize the obstruction theory of Galewski-Matumoto-Stern to derive equivalent formulations of the Triangulation Conjecture. For example, every closed topological manifold M^n with n > 4 can be simplicially triangulated if and only if…
Let $M_n$ be a homology 3-sphere obtained by $\frac1n$-Dehn surgery along a $(p,q)$-torus knot. We consider a polynomial $\sigma_{(p,q,n)}(t)$ whose zeros are the inverses of the Reideimeister torsion of $M_n$ for…
Rubinstein--Tillmann generalized the notions of Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds and trisections of 4-manifolds by defining {\it multisections} of PL $n$-manifolds, which are decompositions into $k=\lfloor n/2\rfloor+1$ $n$-dimensional…
We prove that the canonical 4-dimensional surgery problems can be solved after passing to a double cover. This contrasts the long-standing conjecture about the validity of the topological surgery theorem for arbitrary fundamental groups…
We classify Dehn surgeries on (p,q,r) pretzel knots that result in a manifold of finite fundamental group. The only hyperbolic pretzel knots that admit non-trivial finite surgeries are (-2,3,7) and (-2,3,9). Agol and Lackenby's 6-theorem…
Topological 4-dimensional surgery is conjectured to fail, in general, for free fundamental groups. M. Freedman and P. Teichner have shown that surgery problems with an arbitrary fundamental group have a solution, provided they satisfy a…
We show that any smooth, closed, oriented, connected 4--manifold can be trisected into three copies of $\natural^k (S^1 \times B^3)$, intersecting pairwise in 3--dimensional handlebodies, with triple intersection a closed 2--dimensional…
We prove that any knot or link in any 3-manifold can be nicely decomposed (splitted) by a filling Dehn sphere. This has interesting consequences in the study of branched coverings over knots and links. We give an algorithm for computing…
Boyer, Gordon, and Watson have conjectured that an irreducible rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if its fundamental group is not left-orderable. Since Dehn surgeries on knots in $S^3$ can produce large families of…
We define a new 4-dimensional symplectic cut and paste operations arising from the generalized star relations $(t_{a_0}t_{a_1}t_{a_2} \cdots t_{a_{2g+1}})^{2g+1} = t_{b_1} t_{b_2}^{g}t_{b_3}$, also known as the trident relations, in the…
We give a purely topological definition of the perturbative quantum invariants of links and 3-manifolds associated with Chern-Simons field theory. Our definition is as close as possible to one given by Kontsevich. We will also establish…
Algorithms that decompose a manifold into simple pieces reveal the geometric and topological structure of the manifold, showing how complicated structures are constructed from simple building blocks. This note describes a way to…
We consider in this paper the minimally twisted chain link with 5 components in the 3-sphere, and we analyze the Dehn surgeries on it, namely the Dehn fillings on its exterior M5. The 3-manifold M5 is a nicely symmetric hyperbolic one,…
We present three large families of new examples of plumbed 3-manifolds that bound rational homology 4-balls. These are constructed using two operations, also defined here, that preserve the lack of a lattice embedding obstruction to…
In this paper, we use normal surface theory to study Dehn filling on a knot-manifold. First, it is shown that there is a finite computable set of slopes on the boundary of a knot-manifold that bound normal and almost normal surfaces in a…
New obstructions for embedding one compact oriented 3-manifold in another are given. A theorem of D. Krebes concerning 4-tangles embedded in links arises as a special case. Algebraic and skein-theoretic generalizations for 2n-tangles…