Related papers: Property G and the $4$--genus
Any knot in $S^3$ may be reduced to a slice knot by crossing changes. Indeed, this slice knot can be taken to be the unknot. In this paper we study the question of when the same holds for knots in homology spheres. We show that a knot in a…
We show that the difference between the topological 4-genus of a knot and the minimal genus of a surface bounded by that knot that can be decomposed into a smooth concordance followed by an algebraically simple locally flat surface can be…
We fix a null-homologous, homotopically essential knot $J$ in a 3-manifold with PTFA fundamental group and study concordance of knots that are homotopic to $J$. We construct an infinite family of knots that are characteristic to $J$, and…
It is shown, using sutured manifold theory, that if there are any 2-component counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture, then any knot of least genus among components of such counterexamples is not a fibered knot. The general…
We prove a reconstruction theorem \`a la Calabrese-Groechenig for the moduli space parametrizing skyscraper sheaves on a smooth projective variety when these are considered as a system of points in the dg category of perfect complexes on…
Recently Auckly-Kim-Melvin-Ruberman showed that for any finite subgroup G of SO(4) there exists a contractible 4-manifold with an effective G-action on its boundary so that the twists associated to the non-trivial elements of G do not…
For any knot $K$ which bounds non-orientable and null-homologous surfaces $F$ in punctured $n\mathbb{C}P^2$, we construct a lower bound of the first Betti number of $F$ which consists of the signature of $K$ and the Heegaard Floer…
A torsion-free G_2 structure admitting an infinitesimal isometry is shown to give rise to a 4-manifold equipped with a complex symplectic structure and a 1-parameter family of functions and 2-forms linked by second order equations.…
Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere. A slope p/q is said to be characterising for K if whenever p/q surgery on K is homeomorphic, via an orientation-preserving homeomorphism, to p/q surgery on another knot K' in the 3-sphere, then K and K' are…
In this paper we investigate the question of when different surgeries on a knot can produce identical manifolds. We show that given a knot in a homology sphere, unless the knot is quite special, there is a bound on the number of slopes that…
We investigate the disparity between smooth and topological almost concordance of knots in general 3-manifolds Y. Almost concordance is defined by considering knots in Y modulo concordance in Yx[0,1] and the action of the concordance group…
Using the correction terms in Heegaard Floer homology, we prove that if a knot in $S^3$ admits a positive integral $\mathbf{T}$-, $\mathbf{O}$- or $\mathbf{I}$-type surgery, it must have the same knot Floer homology as one of the knots…
In this paper we define and investigate Z/2-homology cobordism invariants of Z/2-homology 3-spheres which turn out to be related to classical invariants of knots. As an application we show that many lens spaces have infinite order in the…
We give a simple criterion when a Gluck twisting an odd smooth 4-manifold along a 2-sphere $S\subset X$ does not change its diffeomorphism type. We obtain this by handlebody techniques and plug twisting operation, getting a slightly…
Let $Y$ be a closed, orientable 3-manifold with Heegaard genus 2. We prove that if $H_1(Y;\mathbb{Z})$ has order $1$, $3$, or $5$, then there is a representation $\pi_1(Y) \to \mathrm{SU}(2)$ with non-abelian image. Similarly, if…
Symplectic 4-manifolds $(X,\omega)$ with $b_+{=}1$ are roughly classified by the canonical class $K$ and the symplectic form $\omega$ depending upon the sign of $K^2$ and $K\cdot \omega$. Examples are known for each category except for the…
Suppose F is a compact orientable surface, K is a knot in F x I, and N is the 3-manifold obtained by some non-trivial surgery on K. If F x {0} compresses in N, then there is an annulus in F x I with one end K and the other end an essential…
We study exotic smoothings of open 4-manifolds using the minimal genus function and its analog for end homology. While traditional techniques in open 4-manifold smoothing theory give no control of minimal genera, we make progress by using…
Let K' be a hyperbolic knot in S^3 and suppose that some Dehn surgery on K' with distance at least 3 from the meridian yields a 3-manifold M of Heegaard genus 2. We show that if M does not contain an embedded Dyck's surface (the closed…
Let $G$ be a compact Lie group acting isometrically on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with nonempty fixed point set $M^G$. We say that $M$ is fixed-point homogeneous if $G$ acts transitively on a normal sphere to some component of $M^G$.…