Related papers: The Dabkowski-Sahi invariant and $4$-moves for lin…
We study the 4-move invariant \crl\ for links in the 3-sphere developed by Dabkowski and Sahi, which is defined as a quotient of the fundamental group of the link complement. We develop techniques for computing this invariant and show that…
A $4$-move is a local operation for links consisting in replacing two parallel arcs by four half twists. At the present time, it is not known if this induces an unkotting operation for knots. Studying the Dabkowski-Sahi invariant, we prove…
We define a new invariant of links in the $3$-sphere and call it the parabolic Dijkgraaf-Witten (DW) invariant. This invariant is a generalization of the reduced DW invariant derived by Karuo. In this paper, we compute the invariant of…
The Benard-Conway invariant of links in the 3-sphere is a Casson-Lin type invariant defined by counting irreducible SU(2) representations of the link group with fixed meridional traces. For two-component links with linking number one, the…
Given any unoriented link diagram, a group of new knot invariants are constructed. Each of them satisfies a generalized 4 term skein relation. The coefficients of each invariant is from a commutative ring. Homomorphisms and representations…
Using the symplectic geometry of certain manifolds which appear naturally in Lie theory, we define an invariant which assigns a graded abelian group to an oriented link. The relevant manifolds are transverse slices to certain nilpotent…
It is an open problem whether Kirk's $\sigma$ invariant is the complete obstruction to a link map $S^2\cup S^2\to S^4$ being link homotopically trivial. With the objective of constructing counterexamples, Li proposed a link homotopy…
We extend several classical invariants of links in the 3-sphere to links in so-called quasi-cylinders. These invariants include the linking number, the Seifert form, the Alexander module, the Alexander-Conway polynomial and the…
We define an integer valued invariant for two-component links in S^3 by counting projective SU(2) representations of the link group having non-trivial second Stiefel-Whitney class. We show that our invariant is, up to sign, the linking…
Symplectic Khovanov homology is an invariant of oriented links defined by Seidel and Smith and conjectured to be isomorphic to Khovanov homology. I define morphisms (up to a global sign ambiguity) between symplectic Khovanov homology…
We provide obstructions to a link in $S^3$ arising as the cross section of any number of unlinked spheres in $S^4$. Our obstructions arise from the multivariable signature, the Blanchfield form and generalised Seifert matrices. We also…
This paper is expository and is accessible to students. We define simple invariants of knots or links (linking number, Arf-Casson invariants and Alexander-Conway polynomials) motivated by interesting results whose statements are accessible…
Given a link in a 3-manifold such that the complement is hyperbolic, we provide two modifications to the link, called the chain move and the switch move, that preserve hyperbolicity of the complement, with only a relatively small number of…
We introduce new topological quantum invariants of compact oriented 3-manifolds with boundary where the boundary is a disjoint union of two identical surfaces. The invariants are constructed via surgery on manifolds of the form $F \times I$…
We define a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued invariant for transversely-intersecting coassociative $4$-folds equipped with spin structures. Our main result shows this invariant provides an obstruction to separating two such coassociatives through a…
A link in the 3-sphere is homotopically trivial, according to Milnor, if its components bound disjoint maps of disks in the 4-ball. This paper concerns the question of what spaces give rise to the same class of homotopically trivial links…
A link L in the 3-sphere is called Brunnian if every proper sublink of L is trivial. In a previous paper, the first author proved that the restriction to Brunnian links of any Goussarov-Vassiliev finite type invariant of (n+1)-component…
We introduce a multivariable Casson-Lin type invariant for links in $S^3$. This invariant is defined as a signed count of irreducible $\operatorname{SU}(2)$ representations of the link group with fixed meridional traces. For 2-component…
The main result of this paper is a formula for calculating the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 4-manifolds with fixed-point free circle actions. This is done by showing under suitable conditions the existence of a diffeomorphism between the…
We use the Dold-Whitney theorem classifying $SO(3)$-bundles over a 4-complex to give a mod 4 obstruction to a 2-component link of trivial linking number being slice. It turns out that this coincides with the reduction of the Sato-Levine…