Related papers: Concordance invariants of doubled knots and blowin…

Final revision. To appear in the Journal of Differential Geometry. This paper studies knots that are transversal to the standard contact structure in $\reals^3$, bringing techniques from topological knot theory to bear on their transversal…

The slice-Bennequin inequality states an upper bound for the self-linking number of a knot in terms of its four-ball genus. The $s$-Bennequin and $\tau$-Bennequin inequalities provide upper bounds on the self-linking number of a knot in…

A {\it stuck knot} is a knot diagram containing designated crossings, called {\it stuck crossings}, whose incident strands are required to remain locally non-separable. These rigidity constraints restrict the allowable ambient isotopies and…

A well-known algorithm for unknotting knots involves traversing a knot diagram and changing each crossing that is first encountered from below. The minimal number of crossings changed in this way across all diagrams for a knot is called the…

We use the knot filtration on the Heegaard Floer complex to define an integer invariant tau(K) for knots. Like the classical signature, this invariant gives a homomorphism from the knot concordance group to Z. As such, it gives lower bounds…

The untwisting number of a knot K is the minimum number of null-homologous twists required to convert K to the unknot. Such a twist can be viewed as a generalization of a crossing change, since a classical crossing change can be effected by…

In this article we take up the calculation of the minimum number of colors needed to produce a non-trivial coloring of a knot. This is a knot invariant and we use the torus knots of type (2, n) as our case study. We calculate the minima in…

In this paper we construct a sequence of integer-valued concordance invariants $\nu_n(K)$ that generalize the Ozsv\'ath-Szab\'o $\nu$-invariant and the Hom-Wu $\nu^+$-invariant.

We show that the differences between various concordance invariants of knots, including Rasmussen's $s$-invariant and its generalizations $s_n$-invariants, give lower bounds to the Turaev genus of knots. Using the fact that our bounds are…

We show that the torsion order $\mathrm{Ord}(K)$ of a knot $K$ in knot Floer homology gives a lower bound on the minimum number $n$ such that an oriented $(n+1)$-tangle replacement unknots $K$. This generalizes earlier results by Alishahi…

Paul Erd\H{o}s and L\'{a}szl\'{o} Lov\'{a}sz proved in a landmark article that, for any positive integer $k$, up to isomorphism there are only finitely many maximal intersecting families of $k-$sets (maximal $k-$cliques). So they posed the…

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…

Using the knot Floer homology filtration, we define invariants associated to a knot in a three-manifold possessing non-vanishing Floer co(homology) classes. In the case of the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant we obtain an invariant of knots…

Let $D(K)$ be the positively-clasped untwisted Whitehead double of a knot $K$, and $T_{p,q}$ be the $(p,q)$ torus knot. We show that $D(T_{2,2m+1})$ and $D^2(T_{2,2m+1})$ are linearly independent in the smooth knot concordance group…

Classical knot theory deals with {\em diagrams} and {\em invariants}. By means of horizontal {\em trisecants}, we construct a new theory of classical braids with invariants valued in {\em pictures}. These pictures are closely related to…

An $n$-crossing projection of a link $L$ is a projection of $L$ onto a plane such that $n$ points on $L$ are superimposed on top of each other at every crossing. We prove that for all $k \in \mathbb{N}$ and all links $L$, the inequality…

Knots have been considered to be useful models for simulating molecular chains such as DNA and proteins. One quantity that we are interested on molecular knots is the minimum number of monomers necessary to realize a knot. In this paper we…

We establish a relation between several easy-to-calculate numerical invariants of generic knots in $\mathbb{H}^2 \times S^1$, and use it to give a new method of computing the Thurston-Bennequin number of Legendrian knots in the tight…

Knotted vortices such as those produced in water by Kleckner and Irvine tend to transform by reconnection to collections of unknotted and unlinked circles. The reconnection number $R(K)$ of an oriented knot of link $K$ is the least number…

An equilateral stick number $s_{=}(K)$ of a knot $K$ is defined to be the minimal number of sticks required to construct a polygonal knot of $K$ which consists of equal length sticks. Rawdon and Scharein [12] found upper bounds for the…