Related papers: Untying knots in 4D and Wedderburn's Theorem

We prove that deciding if a diagram of the unknot can be untangled using at most $k$ Riedemeister moves (where $k$ is part of the input) is NP-hard. We also prove that several natural questions regarding links in the $3$-sphere are NP-hard,…

We construct an infinite family of hyperbolic, homologically thin knots that are not quasi-alternating. To establish the latter, we argue that the branched double-cover of each knot in the family does not bound a negative definite…

We introduce the notion of rational links in the solid torus. We show that rational links in the solid torus are fully characterized by rational tangles, and hence by the continued fraction of the rational tangle. Furthermore, we generalize…

We consider knot theories possessing a {\em parity}: each crossing is decreed {\em odd} or {\em even} according to some universal rule. If this rule satisfies some simple axioms concerning the behaviour under Reidemeister moves, this leads…

We show that every smooth closed oriented four-manifold admits a decomposition into two co- dimension zero submanifolds with common boundary. Each of these submanifolds carries a structure of a symplectic manifold with pseudo-convex…

Let $K$ be a knot in the 3-sphere, viewed as the ideal boundary of hyperbolic 4-space $\mathbb{H}^4$. We prove that the number of minimal discs in $\mathbb{H}^4$ with ideal boundary $K$ is a knot invariant. I.e.\ the number is finite and…

A proof via the Seiberg-Witten moduli space of Donaldson's theorem on smooth 4-manifolds with definite intersection forms.

We prove a diagonalisation theorem for the tautological, or generalised Miller-Morita-Mumford classes of compact, smooth, simply-connected definite $4$-manifolds. Our result can be thought of as a families version of Donaldson's…

A theorem of Mumford states that, on complex surfaces, any normal isolated singularity whose link is diffeomorphic to a sphere is actually a smooth point. While this property fails in higher dimensions, McLean asks whether the contact…

The homology and cohomology of quandles and racks are used in knot theory: given a finite quandle and a cocycle, we can construct a knot invariant. This is a quick introductory survey to the invariants of knots derived from quandles and…

We prove that a prime knot K is not determined by its p-fold cyclic branched cover for at most two odd primes p. Moreover, we show that for a given odd prime p, the p-fold cyclic branched cover of a prime knot K is the p-fold cyclic…

We prove that, under a simple condition on the cohomology ring, every closed 4-manifold has mod 2 Seiberg-Witten simple type. This result shows that there exists a large class of topological 4-manifolds such that all smooth structures have…

For Hermitian connections on a Hermitian complex line bundle over a Riemannian manifold $(X,g)$, we can define the ``volume", which can be considered to be the ``mirror" of the standard volume for submanifolds. We call the critical points…

We introduce a geometric operation, which we call the relative Whitney trick, that removes a single double point between properly immersed surfaces in a $4$-manifold with boundary. Using the relative Whitney trick we prove that every link…

Inertial manifold theory, saddle point property and exponential dichotomy have been treated as different topics in the literature with different proofs. As a common feature, they all have the purpose of `splitting' the space to understand…

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 prove that a simple knot in the lens space $L(p,q)$ fibers if and only if its order in homology does not divide any remainder occurring in the Euclidean algorithm applied to the pair $(p,q)$. One corollary is that if $p=m^2$ is a perfect…

One can define the complexity of a smooth 4-manifold as the minimal sum of the number of disks, strands and crossings in a Kirby diagram. Martelli proved that the number of homeomorphism classes of complexity less than n grows as $n^2$. In…

In this paper we present a sequence of link invariants, defined from twisted Alexander polynomials, and discuss their effectiveness in distinguish knots. In particular, we recast and extend by geometric means a recent result of Silver and…

We apply Donaldson's theorem on the intersection forms of definite 4--manifolds to characterize the lens spaces which smoothly bound rational homology 4--dimensional balls. Our result implies, in particular, that every smoothly slice…