Related papers: Chern-Simons functional, singular instantons, and …
There are several knot invariants in the literature that are defined using singular instantons. Such invariants provide strong tools to study the knot group and give topological applications. For instance, it gives powerful tools to study…
We study the space of slice-torus invariants. In particular we characterize the set of values that slice-torus invariants may take on a given knot in terms of the stable smooth slice genus. Our study reveals that the resolution of the local…
The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of…
Chern-Simons gauge theory for compact semisimple groups is analyzed from a perturbation theory point of view. The general form of the perturbative series expansion of a Wilson line is presented in terms of the Casimir operators of the gauge…
The slicing number of a knot, $u_s(K)$, is the minimum number of crossing changes required to convert $K$ to a slice knot. This invariant is bounded above by the unknotting number and below by the slice genus $g_s(K)$. We show that for many…
We introduce a framework for defining concordance invariants of knots using equivariant singular instanton Floer theory with Chern-Simons filtration. It is demonstrated that many of the concordance invariants defined using instantons in…
Chern-Simons theory in the 1/N expansion has been conjectured to be equivalent to a topological string theory. This conjecture predicts a remarkable relationship between knot invariants and Gromov-Witten theory. We review some basic aspects…
We associate several invariants to a knot in an integer homology 3-sphere using $SU(2)$ singular instanton gauge theory. There is a space of framed singular connections for such a knot, equipped with a circle action and an equivariant…
As proved by Hedden and Ording, there exist knots for which the Ozsvath-Szabo and Rasmussen smooth concordance invariants, tau and s, differ. The Hedden-Ording examples have nontrivial Alexander polynomials and are not topologically slice.…
We show that for each Seifert form of an algebraically slice knot with nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exists an infinite family of knots having the Seifert form such that the knots are linearly independent in the knot concordance…
We make a precision test of a recently proposed conjecture relating Chern-Simons gauge theory to topological string theory on the resolution of the conifold. First, we develop a systematic procedure to extract string amplitudes from vacuum…
New lower bounds on the unknotting number of a knot are constructed from the classical knot signature function. These bounds can be twice as strong as previously known signature bounds. They can also be stronger than known bounds arising…
Chern-Simons theories, which are topological quantum field theories, provide a field theoretic framework for the study of knots and links in three dimensions. These are rare examples of quantum field theories which can be exactly and…
We find further evidence for the conjecture relating large N Chern-Simons theory on S^3 with topological string on the resolved conifold geometry by showing that the Wilson loop observable of a simple knot on S^3 (for any representation)…
The $T$-genus of a knot is the minimal number of borromean-type triple points on a normal singular disk with no clasp bounded by the knot; it is an upper bound for the slice genus. Kawauchi, Shibuya and Suzuki characterized the slice knots…
A slice-torus invariant is an $\mathbb{R}$-valued homomorphism on the knot concordance group whose value gives a lower bound for the 4-genus such that the equality holds for any positive torus knot. Such invariants have been discovered in…
Equivariant singular instanton Floer theory is a framework that associates to a knot in an integer homology 3-sphere a suite of homological invariants that are derived from circle-equivariant Morse-Floer theory of a Chern-Simons functional…
A brief review of the development of Chern-Simons gauge theory since its relation to knot theory was discovered in 1988 is presented. The presentation is done guided by a dictionary which relates knot theory concepts to quantum field theory…
We study torus knot invariants in the lens space $S^{3}/\mathbb{Z}_{p}$ within Chern--Simons theory. Using the surgery and modular description of lens spaces, we derive a general expression for the invariant of an $(\alpha,\beta)$ torus…
We introduce a 4-dimensional analogue of the rational Seifert genus of a knot $K\subset Y$, which we call the rational slice genus, that measures the complexity of a homology class in $H_2(Y\times [0,1],K;\mathbb{Q})$. Our main theorem is a…