Related papers: Untwisting number and Blanchfield pairings
We study symmetric crossing change operations for strongly invertible knots. Our main theorem is that the most natural notion of equivariant unknotting number is not additive under connected sum, in contrast with the longstanding conjecture…
The (ordinary) unknotting-number of 1-dimensional knots, which is defined by using the crossing-change, is a very basic and important invariant. It is very natural to consider the `unknotting-number' associated with other local-moves on…
A polynomial is presented that models a topological knot in a unique manner. It distinguishes all types of knots including the orientation and has a group theory interpretation. The topologies may be labeled via a number, which upon a base…
Introducing a way to modify knots using $n$-trivial rational tangles, we show that knots with given values of Vassiliev invariants of bounded degree can have arbitrary unknotting number (extending a recent result of Ohyama, Taniyama and…
Given a link in $S^3$ we will use invariants derived from the Alexander module and the Blanchfield pairing to obtain lower bounds on the Gordian distance between links, the unlinking number and various splitting numbers. These lower bounds…
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…
We give a simple obstruction for a knot to be amphichiral, in terms of the homology of the 2-fold branched cover. We work with unoriented knots, and so obstruct both positive and negative amphichirality.
We give a formula for the duality structure of the 3-manifold obtained by doing zero-framed surgery along a knot in the 3-sphere, starting from a diagram of the knot. We then use this to give a combinatorial algorithm for computing the…
The unknotting number of a positive braid with n strands and k intersections is known to be equal to (k-n+1)/2. We consider Lorenz knots (which are positive braids) and, using a different method, find their unknotting numbers in terms of…
A lower bound of the Gordian distance is presented in terms of the Blanchfield pairing. Our approach, in particular, allows us to show at least for 195 pairs of unoriented nontrivial prime knots with up to 10 crossings that their Gordian…
The unoriented band unknotting number of a knot is the minimum number of oriented or non-oriented band surgeries that turn the knot into the unknot. Batson introduced a certain non-oriented band surgery for a torus knot. The minimum number…
Let M be a closed oriented 3-manifold with first Betti number one. Its equivariant linking pairing may be seen as a two-dimensional cohomology class in an appropriate infinite cyclic covering of the space of ordered pairs of distinct points…
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 marked graph diagrams.
We will develop various methods, some are of geometric nature and some are of algebraic nature, to detect the various achiralities of knots and links in $S^3$. For example, we show that the twisted Whitehead double of a knot is achiral if…
We investigate the behaviour of Rasmussen's invariant $s$ under the sharp operation on knots and obtain a lower bound for the sharp unknotting number. This bound leads us to an interesting move that transforms arbitrary knots into…
We use the rational Witt class of a knot in the 3-sphere as a tool for addressing questions about its unknotting number. We apply these tools to several low crossing knots (151 knots with 11 crossing and 100 knots with 12 crossings) and to…
We construct two knot invariants. The first knot invariant is a sum constructed using linking numbers. The second is an invariant of flat knots and is a formal sum of flat knots obtained by smoothing pairs of crossings. This invariant can…
In 2000, Thomas Fink and Young Mao studied neck ties and, with certain assumptions, found 85 different ways to tie a neck tie. They gave a formal language which describes how a tie is made, giving a sequence of moves for each neck tie. The…
In this paper, we show the trivializing number of all minimal diagrams of positive 2-bridge knots and study the relation between the trivializing number and the unknotting number for a part of these knots.
We give explicit matrix presentations of the Blanchfield pairing and certain twisted Blanchfield pairings of the $(m,n)$-torus knot $T(m,n)$. Our method uses a taut identity realizing a genus-two Heegaard splitting of the manifold…