Related papers: Branched covers bounding rational homology balls
Let $M_K$ be the 2-fold branched cover of a knot $K in $S^3$. If $H_1(M_K) = {\bf Z}_3 \oplus {\bf Z}_{3^{2i}} \oplus G$ where 3 does not divide the order of $G$ then $K$ is not of order 4 in the concordance group. This obstruction detects…
The twisted Alexander polynomials of a space, associated to a linear representation $\sigma$ of the fundamental group, are non-abelian refinements of the classical Alexander polynomial from knot theory. In this paper, we show that they…
The structure of the first homology group of a cyclic covering of a knot is an important invariant well known in the knot theory. In the last century, H. Seifert developed a general approach to compute the homology group of the covering.…
We discuss 3-manifolds which are cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere, branched over 2-bridge knots and links. Different descriptions of these manifolds are presented: polyhedral, Heegaard diagram, Dehn surgery and coloured graph constructions.…
For any alternating knot, it is known that the double branched cover of the $3$-sphere branched over the knot is an $L$-space. We show that the three-fold cyclic branched cover is also an $L$-space for any genus one alternating knot.
Kawauchi proved that every strongly negative amphichiral knot $K \subset S^3$ bounds a smoothly embedded disk in some rational homology ball $V_K$, whose construction a priori depends on $K$. We show that $V_K$ is independent of $K$ up to…
In the present paper, we construct a simple invariant which provides a sliceness obstruction for {\em free knots}. This obstruction provides a new point of view to the problem of studying cobordisms of curves immersed in 2-surfaces, a…
A companion paper to "On knot Floer homology in branched double covers" applied to braided branched loci. We reprove the main result of that paper concerning alternating branched loci when projected to an annulus, without using Khovanov…
Recently, Mullins calculated the Casson-Walker invariant of the 2-fold cyclic branched cover of an oriented link in S^3 in terms of its Jones polynomial and its signature, under the assumption that the 2-fold branched cover is a rational…
We construct an infinite family of smoothly slice knots that we prove are topologically doubly slice. Using the correction terms coming from Heegaard Floer homology, we show that none of these knots is smoothly doubly slice. We use these…
Greene and Owens explore cubiquitous lattices as an obstruction to rational homology 3-spheres bounding rational homology 4-balls. The purpose of this article is to better understand which sublattices of $\mathbb{Z}^n$ are cubiquitous with…
The bipolar filtration introduced by T. Cochran, S. Harvey, and P. Horn is a framework for the study of smooth concordance of topologically slice knots and links. It is known that there are topologically slice 1-bipolar knots which are not…
We investigate border ranks of twisted powers of polynomials and smoothability of symmetric powers of algebras. We prove that the latter are smoothable. For the former, we obtain upper bounds for the border rank in general and prove that…
We address primary decomposition conjectures for knot concordance groups, which predict direct sum decompositions into primary parts. We show that the smooth concordance group of topologically slice knots has a large subgroup for which the…
We prove a complex polynomial plank covering theorem for not necessarily homogeneous polynomials. As the consequence of this result, we extend the complex plank theorem of Ball to the case of planks that are not necessarily centrally…
For any knot, the following are equivalent. (1) The infinite cyclic cover has uncountably many finite covers; (2) there exists a finite-image representation of the knot group for which the twisted Alexander polynomial vanishes; (3) the knot…
We derive new obstructions to periodicity of classical knots by employing the Heegaard Floer correction terms of the finite cyclic branched covers of the knots. Applying our results to two fold covers, we demonstrate through numerous…
These notes are based on the lectures given by the author during Winter Braids IX in Reims in March 2019. We discuss slice knots and why they are interesting, as well as some ways to decide if a given knot is or is not slice. We describe…
We show that the subgroup of the knot concordance group generated by links of isolated complex singularities intersects the subgroup of algebraically slice knots in an infinite rank subgroup.
A branched covering surface-knot is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over an oriented surface-knot $F$, where we include the case when the covering has no branch points. A branched covering surface-knot is presented by a…