Related papers: The knots that lie above all shadows
A theorem of Kronheimer and Mrowka states that Khovanov homology is able to detect the unknot. That is, if a knot has the Khovanov homology of the unknot, then it is equivalent to it. Similar results hold for the trefoils and the…
We show that twisted torus knots $T(p,q,3,s)$ are tunnel number one. A short spanning arc connecting two adjacent twisted strands is an unknotting tunnel.
The unknotting number of a knot is bounded from below by its slice genus. It is a well-known fact that the genera and unknotting numbers of torus knots coincide. In this note we characterize quasipositive knots for which the genus bound is…
The connected sum of two flat virtual knots depends on the choice of diagrams and basepoints. We show that any minimal crossing diagram of a composite flat virtual knot is a connected sum diagram. We also show the crossing number of flat…
We use microlocal sheaf theory to show that if two knots have Legendrian isotopic conormal tori, then the knots are isotopic or mirror images.
A quandle is an algebraic system which excels at describing limited symmetries of a space. We introduce the concept of Schl\"{a}fli quandles which are defined relating to chosen rotational symmetries of regular tessellations. On the other…
A knot is a closed loop in space without self-intersection. Two knots are equivalent if there is a self homeomorphism of space bringing one onto the other. An arc presentation is an embedding of a knot in the union of finitely many half…
We prove that 0 is a characterizing slope for infinitely many knots, namely the genus-1 knots whose knot Floer homology is 2-dimensional in the top Alexander grading, which we classified in recent work and which include all $(-3,3,2n+1)$…
We show that no torus knot of type $(2,n)$, $n>3$ odd, can be obtained from a polynomial embedding $t \mapsto (f(t), g(t), h(t))$ where $(\deg(f),\deg(g))\leq (3,n+1) $. Eventually, we give explicit examples with minimal lexicographic…
We consider the question, asked by Friedl, Livingston and Zentner, of which sums of torus knots are concordant to alternating knots. After a brief analysis of the problem in its full generality, we focus on sums of two torus knots. We…
A conjecture proposed by J. Tripp in 2002 states that the crossing number of any knot coincides with the canonical genus of its Whitehead double. In the meantime, it has been established that this conjecture is true for a large class of…
In Theorem 1.2 of the paper math.GT/0002110 the author claimed to have proved that all transversal knots whose topological knot type is that of an iterated torus knot (we call them cable knots) are transversally simple. That theorem is…
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…
A long standing open conjecture states that if a link $\mathcal{K}$ is alternating, then its ropelength $L(\mathcal{K})$ is at least of the order $O(Cr(\mathcal{K}))$. A recent result shows that the maximum braid index of a link bounds the…
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…
We determine the locally flat cobordism distance between torus knots with small and large braid index, up to high precision. Here small means 2, 3, 4, or 6. As an application, we derive a surprising fact about torus knots that appear as…
We present an enhanced prime decomposition theorem for knots that gives the isotopy classes of composite knots that can be constructed from a given list of prime factors (allowing for the mirroring and orientation reversing for each…
We give a necessary condition for a torus knot to be untied by a single twisting. By using this result, we give infinitely many torus knots that cannot be untied by a single twisting.
Given a diagram $D$ of a knot $K$, we consider the number $c(D)$ of crossings and the number $b(D)$ of overpasses of $D$. We show that, if $D$ is a diagram of a nontrivial knot $K$ whose number $c(D)$ of crossings is minimal, then…
The transient number of a knot K, denoted tr(K), is the minimal number of simple arcs that have to be attached to K, in order that K can be homotoped to a trivial knot in a regular neighborhood of the union of K and the arcs. We give a…