Related papers: Almost positive links are strongly quasipositive

We show that if a classical knot diagram satisfies a certain combinatorial condition then it is minimal with respect to the number of classical crossings. This statement is proved by using the Kauffman bracket and the construction of atoms…

In this paper, we give 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 prove that pseudoholomorphic curves intersect complex 2-cycles positively in almost complex 4-manifolds. This makes possible a general and conceptually simple proof that an almost complex 4-manifold with many curves admits a taming…

We establish inequalities that constrain the genera of smooth cobordisms between knots in 4-dimensional cobordisms. These "relative adjunction inequalities" improve the adjunction inequalities for closed surfaces which have been…

Using an involved study of the Jones polynomial, we determine, as our main result, the crossing numbers of (prime) amphicheiral knots. As further applications, we show that several classes of links, including semiadequate links and…

By applying Seifert's algorithm to a special alternating diagram of a link L, one obtains a Seifert surface F of L. We show that the support of the sutured Floer homology of the sutured manifold complementary to F is affine isomorphic to…

Let $D$ be a knot diagram, and let ${\mathcal D}$ denote the set of diagrams that can be obtained from $D$ by crossing exchanges. If $D$ has $n$ crossings, then ${\mathcal D}$ consists of $2^n$ diagrams. A folklore argument shows that at…

We show the existence of infinitely many prime knots each of which having in their complements meridional essential surfaces with two boundary components and arbitrarily high genus.

Neuwirth asked if any non-trivial knot in the 3-sphere can be embedded in a closed surface so that the complement of the surface is a connected essential surface for the knot complement. In this paper, we examine some variations on this…

Let $F$ be a graph which contains an edge whose deletion reduces its chromatic number. We prove tight bounds on the number of copies of $F$ in a graph with a prescribed number of vertices and edges. Our results extend those of Simonovits,…

We show that a quasipositive surface with disconnected boundary induces a map between the knot Floer homology groups of its boundary components preserving the transverse invariant. As an application, we show that this invariant can be used…

We show that a positive braid knot has maximal topological 4-genus exactly if it has maximal signature invariant. As an application, we determine all positive braid knots with maximal topological 4-genus and compute the topological 4-genus…

We consider polynomials on the intersection of the closed positive orthant with the height-$1$ level hypersurface of certain polynomials with positive coefficients. We show that any polynomial strictly positive on such a semi-algebraic set…

Boileau and Rudolph called a link $L$ in the $3$-sphere a $\bf C$-boundary if it can be realized as the intersection of an algebraic curve $A$ in $\bf C^2$ with the boundary of a smooth embedded $4$-ball $B$. They showed that some links are…

We show that among alternating knots, those which have diagrams whose Seifert and Tait graphs are isomorphic are dominant.

A knot (or link) diagram is said to be everywhere equivalent if all the diagrams obtained by switching one crossing represent the same knot (or link). We classify such diagrams of a closed 3-braid.

For a positive braid link, a link represented as a closed positive braids, we determine the first few coefficients of its HOMFLY polynomial in terms of geometric invariants such as, the maximum euler characteristics, the number of split…

We study invariant Seifert surfaces for strongly invertible knots, and prove that the gap between the equivariant genus (the minimum of the genera of invariant Seifert surfaces) of a strongly invertible knot and the (usual) genus of the…

We define an equivalence relation on graphs with signed edges, such that the associated adjacency matrices of two equivalent graphs are congruent over $\mathbb{Z}$. We show that signed graphs whose eigenvalues are larger than $-2$ are…

Let K be a knot in S^3 of genus g and let n>0. We show that if rk HFK(K,g) < 2^{n+1} (where HFK denotes knot Floer homology), in particular if K is an alternating knot such that the leading coefficient a_g of its Alexander polynomial…