Related papers: Divide knots of maximal genus defect
A geometric argument is given to prove that the Seifert genus of a positive knot equals its slice genus. A combinatorial invariant, giving a lower bound for the slice genus, is formulated for arbitrary knots. Properties and applications of…
We prove a simple necessary and sufficient condition for a two-bridge knot K(p,q) to be quasipositive, based on the continued fraction expansion of p/q. As an application, coupled with some classification results in contact and symplectic…
Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…
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…
We present a systematic classification of uncolored bonded knots with singularity number at most seven. Bonded knots provide a topological model for closed protein chains with intramolecular bridges, such as disulfide bonds. Following the…
Let T denote the group of smooth concordance classes of topologically sice knots. We show that the first quotient in the bipolar filtration of T (i.e. 0-bipolar knots modulo 1-bipolar knots) has infinite rank, even modulo Alexander…
For a knot $K$ in the 3-sphere and a simply connected closed 4-manifold $X$, we define the $X$-double slice genus of $K$, extending the notion from the case when $X$ is the 4-sphere. We show that for each integer $n$, there exists an…
Physical knots and links are one-dimensional submanifolds of R^3 with fixed length and thickness. We show that isotopy classes in this category can differ from those of classical knot and link theory. In particular we exhibit a Gordian…
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 study spectral gaps of cellular differentials for finite cyclic coverings of knot complements. Their asymptotics can be expressed in terms of irrationality exponents associated with ratios of logarithms of algebraic numbers determined by…
We classify knot traces with trisection genus at most 2. We give infinitely many knots whose traces have trisection genus 3, and infinitely many knots whose traces have trisection genus 4. We also show that there exist infinite families of…
We compose the table of knots in the thickened torus T x I having diagrams with at most 4 crossings. The knots are constructed by the three-step process. First we list regular graphs of degree 4 with at most 4 vertices, then for each graph…
We show that every non-trivial strongly quasipositive link is smoothly concordant to infinitely many pairwise non-isotopic strongly quasipositive links. In contrast to our result, Baker conjectured that smoothly concordant strongly…
Let $K\subset S^3$ be a Fox $p$-colored knot and assume $K$ bounds a locally flat surface $S\subset B^4$ over which the given $p$-coloring extends. This coloring of $S$ induces a dihedral branched cover $X\to S^4$. Its branching set is a…
For every N > 0 there exists a group of deficiency less than -N that arises as the fundamental group of a smooth homology 4-sphere and also as the fundamental group of the complement of a compact contractible submanifold of the 4-sphere. A…
Distinct knots K, K' can sometimes share a common p/q-framed Dehn surgery. A folk conjecture held that for a fixed pair of knots, this can occur for at most one value of p/q. We disprove this conjecture by constructing pairs of distinct…
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…
A torti-rational knot, denoted by K(2a,b|r), is a knot obtained from the 2-bridge link B(2a,b) by applying Dehn twists an arbitrary number of times, r, along one component of B(2a,b). We determine the genus of K(2a,b|r) and solve a question…
For a knot $K$, the doubly slice genus $g_{ds}(K)$ is the minimal $g$ such that $K$ divides a closed, orientable, and unknotted surface of genus $g$ embedded in $S^4$. In this paper, we identify the doubly slice genera of 2909 of the 2977…
Twisted torus knots are torus knots with some full twists added along some number of adjacent strands. There are infinitely many known examples of twisted torus knots which are actually torus knots. We give eight more infinite families of…