Related papers: State invariants of two-bridge knots
Fox conjectured the Alexander polynomial of an alternating knot is trapezoidal, i.e. the coefficients first increase, then stabilize and finally decrease in a symmetric way. Recently, Hirasawa and Murasugi further conjectured a relation…
We study the equivariant concordance classes of two-bridge knots, providing an easy formula to compute their butterfly polynomial, and we give two different proofs that no two-bridge knot is equivariantly slice. Finally, we introduce a new…
In this paper we show that the twisted Alexander polynomial associated to a parabolic representation determines fiberedness and genus of a wide class of 2-bridge knots. As a corollary we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of…
We use twisted Alexander polynomials to show that certain algebraically slice 2-bridge knots are not topologically slice, even though all prime power Casson-Gordon signatures vanish. We also provide some computations indicating the efficacy…
Closed geodesics associated with indefinite binary quadratic forms, or equivalently with real quadratic irrationals, have long been studied as geometric $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$-invariants. Building on the Birman-Williams approach to…
The Alexander polynomial of a knot has been generalized in three different ways to give twisted invariants. The resulting invariants are usually referred to as twisted Alexander polynomials, higher-order Alexander polynomials and…
We investigate the question of when distinct branched surfaces in the complement of a 2-bridge knot support essential surfaces with identical boundary slopes. We determine all instances in which this occurs and identify an infinite family…
We investigate the twisted Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge knot associated to a Fox coloring. For several families of 2-bridge knots, including but not limited to, torus knots and genus-one knots, we derive formulae for these twisted…
In this short note we show the existence of an epimorphism between groups of $2$-bridge knots by means of an elementary argument using the Riley polynomial. As a corollary, we give a classification of $2$-bridge knots by Riley polynomials.
The bridge index and superbridge index of a knot are important invariants in knot theory. We define the bridge map of a knot conformation, which is closely related to these two invariants, and interpret it in terms of the tangent indicatrix…
In this paper we conjecture that the Links-Gould invariant of links, that we know is a generalization of the Alexander-Conway polynomial, shares some of its classical features. In particular it seems to give a lower bound for the genus of…
This short survey, which was written to accompany a minicourse at the BIRS conference "Topology in dimension 4.5", concerns invariants of knotted $2$-spheres in $S^4$, also known as $2$-knots. It covers invariants extracted from the…
In this paper, we consider two properties on the braid index of a two-bridge knot. We prove an inequality on the braid indices of two-bridge knots if there exists an epimorphism between their knot groups. Moreover, we provide the average…
Twisted Alexander invariants of knots are well-defined up to multiplication of units. We get rid of this multiplicative ambiguity via a combinatorial method and define normalized twisted Alexander invariants. We then show that the…
We define three different types of spanning surfaces for knots in thickened surfaces. We use these to introduce new Seifert matrices, Alexander-type polynomials, genera, and a signature invariant. One of these Alexander polynomials extends…
We define and study a bigraded knot invariant whose Euler characteristic is the Alexander polynomial, closely connected to knot Floer homology. The invariant is the homology of a chain complex whose generators correspond to Kauffman states…
A marked strongly invertible knot is a triple $(K,h,\delta)$ of a knot $K$ in $S^3$, a strong inversion $h$ of $K$, and a subarc $\delta \subset \operatorname{Fix}(h)\cong S^1$ bounded by $\operatorname{Fix}(h)\cap K\cong S^0$. An invariant…
We publish a table of primitive finite-type invariants of order less than or equal to six, for knots of ten or fewer crossings. We note certain mod-2 congruences, one of which leads to a chirality criterion in the Alexander polynomial. We…
We extend the state models for Jones and Alexander polynomials of classical links to state models of 2-variable polynomials in the case of singular links. Moreover, we extend both of them to polynomials with d+1 variables for long singular…
We study $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{F})$-character varieties of knots over algebraically closed fields $\mathbb{F}$. We give a sufficient condition in terms of the double branched cover of a $2$-bridge knot (or, equivalently, of its Alexander…