Related papers: Balanced algebraic unknotting, linking forms, and …
The primary objects of study in the ``knot theory of complex plane curves'' are C-links: links (or knots) cut out of a 3-sphere in the complex plane by complex plane transverse and totally tangential. Transverse C-links are naturally…
According to seminal work of Kontsevich, the unstable homology of the mapping class group of a surface can be computed via the homology of a certain lie algebra. In a recent paper, S. Morita analyzed the abelianization of this lie algebra,…
Ozsvath and Szabo conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred knots. We propose a strategy to approach this conjecture based on Gabai's theory of sutured manifold decomposition and contact topology. We implement this strategy for…
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…
The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of…
We show that the Kakimizu complex of minimal genus Seifert surfaces for a knot in the 3-sphere is quasi-isometric to a Euclidean integer lattice $\mathbb Z^n$ for some $n \geq 0$.
We prove that any knot or link in any 3-manifold can be nicely decomposed (splitted) by a filling Dehn sphere. This has interesting consequences in the study of branched coverings over knots and links. We give an algorithm for computing…
For all n > 0 there is a homomorphism from the smooth concordance group of knots in dimension 2n + 1 to an algebraically defined group called the rational algebraic concordance group. This algebraic concordance group splits as a direct sum…
We study the $\mathbb{CP}^2$-slicing number of knots, i.e. the smallest $m\geq 0$ such that a knot $K\subseteq S^3$ bounds a properly embedded, null-homologous disk in a punctured connected sum $(\#^m\mathbb{CP}^2)^{\times}$. We give a…
We investigate the computational complexity of some problems in three-dimensional topology and geometry. We show that the problem of determining a bound on the genus of a knot in a 3-manifold, is NP-complete. Using similar ideas, we show…
This thesis develops some general calculational techniques for finding the orders of knots in the topological concordance group C. The techniques currently available in the literature are either too theoretical, applying to only a small…
We show that any knot which is smoothly the closure of a 3-braid cannot be Lagrangian concordant to and from the maximum Thurston-Bennequin Legendrian unknot except the unknot itself. Our obstruction comes from drawing the Weinstein…
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…
The non-orientable 4-genus of a knot in the 3-sphere is defined as the smallest first Betti number of any non-orientable surface smoothly and properly embedded in the 4-ball, with boundary the given knot. We compute the non-orientable…
A link is called $\chi-$slice if it bounds a smooth properly embedded surface in the 4-ball with no closed components and Euler characteristic 1. If a link has a single component, then it is $\chi-$slice if and only if it is slice. One…
A 1-bridge torus knot in a 3-manifold of genus $\le 1$ is a knot drawn on a Heegaard torus with one bridge. We give two types of normal forms to parameterize the family of 1-bridge torus knots that are similar to the Schubert's normal form…
Our main result gives an adjunction inequality for embedded surfaces in certain $4$-manifolds with contact boundary under a non-vanishing assumption on the Bauer--Furuta type invariants. Using this, we give infinitely many knots in $S^3$…
We show that any two same-genus, oriented, boundary parallel surfaces bounded by a non-split, alternating link into the 4-ball are smoothly isotopic fixing boundary. In other words, any same-genus Seifert surfaces for a non-split,…
Define the 1-handle stabilization distance between two surfaces properly embedded in a fixed 4-dimensional manifold to be the minimal number of 1-handle stabilizations necessary for the surfaces to become ambiently isotopic. For every…
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…