Related papers: A counterexample to Batson's conjecture
We show that the torus knots $T(2,5)$ and $T(2,9)$ bound smooth M\"{o}bius bands in the 4-ball whose double branched covers are negative definite, giving counterexamples to Conjectures 1.6 and 1.8 of Allen in [New York J. Math. 29 (2023)…
Batson's conjecture is a non-orientable version of Milnor's conjecture, which states that the 4-ball genus of a torus knot $T(p,q)$ is equal to $\frac{(p-1)(q-1)}{2}$. Batson's conjecture states that the nonorientable 4-ball genus is equal…
In formulating a non-orientable analogue of the Milnor Conjecture on the $4$-genus of torus knots, Batson developed an elegant construction that produces a smooth non-orientable spanning surface in $B^4$ for a given torus knot in $S^3$.…
The nonorientable four-ball genus of a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is the minimal first Betti number of nonorientable surfaces in $B^4$ bounded by $K$. By amalgamating ideas from involutive knot Floer homology and unoriented knot Floer homology, we…
The nonorientable 4-genus $\gamma_4(K)$ of a knot $K$ is the smallest first Betti number of any nonorientable surface properly embedded in the 4-ball, and bounding the knot $K$. We study a conjecture proposed by Batson about the value of…
We discuss differences between genera of smooth and locally-flat non-orientable surfaces in the 4-ball with boundary a given torus knot or 2-bridge knot. In particular, we establish that a result by Batson on the smooth non-orientable…
We extend previous work by using a combination of band surgeries and known bounds to compute $\gamma_4(T_{4n, (2n\pm1)^2 + 4n-2}) = 2n-1$ for all $n \geq 1$. We further generalize this result by showing that $\gamma_4(T_{4n + 2k, n(4n + 2k)…
The non-orientable 4-genus of a knot $K$ in $S^{3}$, denoted $\gamma_4(K)$, measures the minimum genus of a non-orientable surface in $B^{4}$ bounded by $K$. We compute bounds for the non-orientable 4-genus of knots $T_{5, q}$ and $T_{6,…
We present a lower bound on the stable $4$-genus of a knot based on Casson-Gordon $\tau$-signatures. We compute the lower bound for an infinite family of knots, the twist knots, and show that a twist knot is torsion in the knot concordance…
The stable 4-genus of a knot K in 3-space is the limiting value of g_4(nK)/n, where g_4 denotes the 4-genus and n goes to infinity. This induces a seminorm on CQ, the concordance group tensored with the rational numbers. Basic properties of…
We prove that the signature bound for the topological 4-genus of 3-strand torus knots is sharp, using McCoy's twisting method. We also show that the bound is off by at most 1 for 4-strand and 6-strand torus knots, and improve the upper…
The nonorientable four-ball genus of a knot K is the smallest first Betti number of any smoothly embedded, nonorientable surface F in B^4 bounding K. In contrast to the orientable four-ball genus, which is bounded below by the Murasugi…
Take a thin, rectangular strip of paper, add in an odd number of half-twists, then join the ends together. This gives a multi-twist paper M\"obius band. We prove that any multi-twist paper M\"obius band can be constructed so the aspect…
We develop obstructions to a knot K in the 3-sphere bounding a smooth punctured Klein bottle in the 4-ball. The simplest of these is based on the linking form of the 2-fold branched cover of the 3-sphere branched over K. Stronger…
We observe that the strong slope conjecture implies that the degree of the colored Jones polynomial detects all torus knots. As an application we obtain that an adequate knot that has the same colored Jones polynomial degrees as a torus…
We consider a surface link in the 4-space which can be presented by a simple branched covering over the standard torus, which we call a torus-covering link. Torus-covering links include spun $T^2$-knots and turned spun $T^2$-knots. In this…
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…
The A-polynomial of a knot is defined in terms of SL(2,C) representations of the knot group, and encodes information about essential surfaces in the knot complement. In 2005, Dunfield-Garoufalidis and Boyer-Zhang proved that it detects the…
For each $g>0$ we give infinitely many knots that are strongly negative amphichiral, hence rationally slice and representing 2-torsion in the smooth concordance group, yet which do not bound any locally flatly embedded surface in the 4-ball…
We present three large families of new examples of plumbed 3-manifolds that bound rational homology 4-balls. These are constructed using two operations, also defined here, that preserve the lack of a lattice embedding obstruction to…