Related papers: Band Number and the Double Slice Genus

Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…

We use the Blanchfield form to obtain a lower bound on the equivariant slice genus of a strongly invertible knot. For our main application, let $K$ be a genus one strongly invertible slice knot with nontrivial Alexander polynomial. We show…

We introduce a technique for showing classical knots and links are not slice. As one application we show that the iterated Bing doubles of many algebraically slice knots are not topologically slice. Some of the proofs do not use the…

New lower bounds on the unknotting number of a knot are constructed from the classical knot signature function. These bounds can be twice as strong as previously known signature bounds. They can also be stronger than known bounds arising…

We give examples of a linear combination of algebraic knots and their mirrors that are algebraically slice, but whose topological and smooth four-genus is two. Our examples generalize an example of non-slice algebraically slice linear…

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…

An $n$-plat 1-knot is one isotopic to the plat closure of some $2n$-braid, which is also called an $n$-bridge 1-knot. Schubert classified 2-bridge 1-knots by considering their double branched covers which are homeomorphic to lens spaces. A…

Experimental data from Dunfield et al using random grid diagrams suggests that the genus of a knot grows linearly with respect to the crossing number. Using billiard table diagrams of Chebyshev knots developed by Koseleff and Pecker and a…

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…

We provide linear lower bounds for the signature of positive braids in terms of the three genus of their braid closure. This yields linear bounds for the topological slice genus of knots that arise as closures of positive braids.

We introduce an oriented rational band move, a generalization of an ordinary oriented band move, and show that if a knot $K$ in the three-sphere can be made into the $(n+1)$-component unlink by $n$ oriented rational band moves, then $K$ is…

Knotted ribbons form an important topic in knot theory. They have applications in natural sciences, such as cyclic duplex DNA modeling. A flat knotted ribbon can be obtained by gently pulling a knotted ribbon tight so that it becomes flat…

We describe the genus two knots which admit a genus one, one bridge position. These are divided into several families, one consists of vertical bandings of two genus one $(1,1)$-knots, other consists of vertical bandings of two cross cap…

This paper gives sharp linear bounds on the genus of a normal surface in a triangulated compact, orientable 3--manifold in terms of the quadrilaterals in its cell decomposition---different bounds arise from varying hypotheses on the surface…

We prove that all knots with unknotting number at most 21 are smoothly slice in the K3 surface. We also prove a more general statement for 4-manifolds that contain a plumbing tree of spheres. Our strategy is based on a flexible method to…

A knot in the 3-sphere is called doubly slice if it is a slice of an unknotted 2-sphere in the 4-sphere. We give a bi-sequence of new obstructions for a knot being doubly slice. We construct it following the idea of Cochran-Orr-Teichner's…

We study the ribbon discs that arise from a symmetric union presentation of a ribbon knot. A natural notion of symmetric ribbon number is introduced and compared with the classical ribbon number. We show that the gap between these numbers…

A ribbon is, intuitively, a smooth mapping of an annulus $S^1 \times I$ in 3-space having constant width $\varepsilon$. This can be formalized as a triple $(x,\varepsilon, \mathbf{u})$ where $x$ is smooth curve in 3-space and $\mathbf{u}$…

Among the knots that are the connected sum of two torus knots with cobordism distance 1, we characterize those that have 4-dimensional clasp number at least 2, and we show that their n-fold connected self-sum has 4-dimensional clasp number…

For n >1, if the Seifert form of a knotted 2n-1 sphere K in S^{2n+1} has a metabolizer, then the knot is slice. Casson and Gordon proved that this is false in dimension three (n = 1). However, in the three dimensional case it is true that…