Related papers: Knotted surfaces as vanishing sets of polynomials

We provide three 3-dimensional characterizations of the Z-slice genus of a knot, the minimal genus of a locally-flat surface in 4-space cobounding the knot whose complement has cyclic fundamental group: in terms of balanced algebraic…

Given a family of groups admitting a braided monoidal structure (satisfying mild assumptions) we construct a family of spaces on which the groups act and whose connectivity yields, via a classical argument of Quillen, homological stability…

We show that for each fixed $k$, the problem of finding $k$ pairwise vertex-disjoint directed paths between given source-sink pairs in a planar directed graph is solvable in polynomial time. In fact, it suffices to fix the number of faces…

Some generalizations and variations of the Fintushel-Stern rim surgery are known to produce smoothly knotted surfaces. We show that if the fundamental groups of their complements are cyclic, then these surfaces are topologically unknotted.…

We construct new knot polynomials. Let $V$ be the standard solid torus in 3-space and let $pr$ be its standard projection onto an annulus. Let $M$ be the space of all smooth oriented knots in $V$ such that the restriction of $pr$ is an…

We establish sharp estimates that adapt the polynomial method to arbitrary varieties. These include a partitioning theorem, estimates on polynomials vanishing on fixed sets and bounds for the number of connected components of real algebraic…

We show that the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of any oriented surface F (possibly with marked points in its boundary) has no zero divisors and that its center is generated by knots parallel to the unmarked components of the boundary of F.…

Consider a system F of n polynomial equations in n unknowns, over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. We present a fast method to find a point in every irreducible component of the zero set Z of F. Our techniques…

We prove that all knots with unknotting number at most 21 are smoothly slice in the K3 surface. We also prove a more general statement for 4-manifolds that contain a plumbing tree of spheres. Our strategy is based on a flexible method to…

The surface singular braid monoid corresponds to marked graph diagrams of knotted surfaces in braid form. In a quest to resolve linearity problem for this monoid, we will show that if it is defined on at least two or at least three strands,…

A knotted surface in the 4-sphere may be described by means of a hyperbolic diagram that captures the 0-section of a special Morse function, called a hyperbolic decomposition. We show that every hyperbolic decomposition of a knotted surface…

Let $\mathbb{K}$ be a field of characteristic zero and $\mathbb{K}[x_1, \dots, x_n]$ the corresponding multivariate polynomial ring. Given a sequence of $s$ polynomials $\mathbf{f} = (f_1, \dots, f_s)$ and a polynomial $\phi$, all in…

For a set of graphs $\mathcal{H}$, the \textsc{$\mathcal{H}$-free Edge Deletion} problem asks to find whether there exist at most $k$ edges in the input graph whose deletion results in a graph without any induced copy of $H\in\mathcal{H}$.…

We generalize the construction of connected branched polymers and the notion of the volume of the space of connected branched polymers studied by Brydges and Imbrie, and Kenyon and Winkler to any hyperplane arrangement A. The volume of the…

We recall Petit's construction of "dichromatic" invariants of 4-manifolds computed from Kirby diagrams using a nested pair of ribbon fusion categories $ B \subset C $ as initial data. Along the way we prove a lemma that fits the use of…

In this paper we present recent results toward the computation of the HOMFLYPT skein module of the lens spaces $L(p,1)$, $\mathcal{S}\left(L(p,1) \right)$, via braids. Our starting point is the knot theory of the solid torus ST and the…

This monograph derives direct and concrete relations between colored Jones polynomials and the topology of incompressible spanning surfaces in knot and link complements. Under mild diagrammatic hypotheses that arise naturally in the study…

For every $n\ge 2$, the {\em surface Houghton group} $\mathcal B_n$ is defined as the asymptotically rigid mapping class group of a surface with exactly $n$ ends, all of them non-planar. The groups $\mathcal B_n$ are analogous to, and in…

The trace of $n$-framed surgery on a knot in $S^3$ is a 4-manifold homotopy equivalent to the 2-sphere. We characterise when a generator of the second homotopy group of such a manifold can be realised by a locally flat embedded 2-sphere…

Let $q$ be a prime power and $\mathbb F_{q^n}$ be the finite field with $q^n$ elements, where $n>1$. We introduce the class of the linearized polynomials $L(x)$ over $\mathbb F_{q^n}$ such that…