Related papers: Link cobordism and the intersection of slice discs
Let K be a knot in S^3. We study the iterated Bing doubles of K, giving a new proof for the following statement: If BD_n(K) is slice for some n, then K is algebraically slice. This result was first proved by Cha and Kim using covering link…
The $T$-genus of a knot is the minimal number of borromean-type triple points on a normal singular disk with no clasp bounded by the knot; it is an upper bound for the slice genus. Kawauchi, Shibuya and Suzuki characterized the slice knots…
We describe a construction procedure of infinite sets of $2$-links in closed simply connected 4-manifolds that are topologically isotopic, smoothly inequivalent and componentwise topologically unknotted. These 2-links are the first examples…
In the 60's Levine proved that if $R$ is a slice knot, then on any genus $g$ Seifert surface for $R$ there is a $g$ component link $J$, called a derivative of $R$, on which the Seifert form vanishes. Many subsequent obstructions to $R$…
There is a question asking whether a handle-irreducible summand of every stable-ribbon surface-link is a unique ribbon surface-link. This question for the case of a trivial surface-link is affirmatively answered. That is, a…
It is shown that every knot or link is the set of complex tangents of a 3-sphere smoothly embedded in the three-dimensional complex space. We show in fact that a one-dimensional submanifold of a closed orientable 3-manifold can be realised…
As a previous result, it has shown that every sphere-link consisting of trivial components is a ribbon sphere-link. In this note, it is shown that for every closed oriented disconnected surface F with just one non-sphere component, every…
We define a knot to be half ribbon if it is the cross-section of a ribbon 2-knot, and observe that ribbon implies half ribbon implies slice. We introduce the half ribbon genus of a knot K, the minimum genus of a ribbon knotted surface of…
A knot K in the 3-sphere is said to have Property nR if, whenever K is a component of an n-component link L and some integral surgery on L produces the connected sum of n copies of S^1 x S^2, there is a sequence of handle slides on L that…
A crucial step in the surgery-theoretic program to classify smooth manifolds is that of representing a middle--dimensional homology class by a smoothly embedded sphere. This step fails even for the simple 4-manifolds obtained from the…
Let $X$ be a real algebraic variety with set of complex points $X_{\mathbb C}$ and set of real points $X_{\mathbb R}$. A complex slice of $X$ is a transverse intersection of $X_{\mathbb R}$ with a complex subvariety $V$ of $X_{\mathbb C}$.…
We apply Donaldson's theorem on the intersection forms of definite 4--manifolds to characterize the lens spaces which smoothly bound rational homology 4--dimensional balls. Our result implies, in particular, that every smoothly slice…
Call a smooth knot (or smooth link) in the unit sphere in $\mathbb{C}^2$ analytic (respectively, smoothly analytic) if it bounds a complex curve (respectively, a smooth complex curve) in the complex ball. Let $K$ be a smoothly analytic…
We provide obstructions to a link in $S^3$ arising as the cross section of any number of unlinked spheres in $S^4$. Our obstructions arise from the multivariable signature, the Blanchfield form and generalised Seifert matrices. We also…
In 1982 Louis Kauffman conjectured that if a knot in the 3-sphere is a slice knot then on any Seifert surface for that knot there exists a homologically essential simple closed curve of self-linking zero which is itself a slice knot, or at…
We study the equivariant 4-genus of strongly invertible knots in the $S^3$ boundary of 4-manifolds with involution. We provide techniques for constructing slice disks for knots in various symmetric 4-manifolds via an equivariant version of…
We introduce a new construction of a surface link in the 4-space. We construct a surface link as a branched covering over the standard torus, which we call a torus-covering link. We show that a certain torus-covering $T^2$-link is…
This paper is a survey of some of the most elementary consequences of the JSJ-decomposition and geometrization for knot and link complements in the 3-sphere. Formulated in the language of graphs, the result is the construction of a…
A diagonal surface in a link exterior M is a properly embedded, incompressible, boundary incompressible surface which furthermore has the same number of boundary components and same slope on each component of the boundary of M. We derive a…
We give a complete characterization of the topological slice status of odd 3-strand pretzel knots, proving that an odd 3-strand pretzel knot is topologically slice if and only if either it is ribbon or has trivial Alexander polynomial. (By…