Related papers: Chern-Simons functional, singular instantons, and …
The existence of topological invariants analogous to Chern/Pontryagin classes for a standard $SO(D)$ or $SU(N)$ connection, but constructed out of the torsion tensor, is discussed. These invariants exhibit many of the features of the…
We define Casson-Gordon sigma-invariants for links and give a lower bound of the slice genus of a link in terms of these invariants. We study as an example a family of two component links of genus h and show that their slice genus is h,…
We use moduli spaces of instantons and Chern-Simons invariants of flat connections to prove that the Whitehead doubles of (2,2^n-1) torus knots are independent in the smooth knot concordance group; that is, they freely generate a subgroup…
There is a higher dimensional analogue of the perturbative Chern-Simons theory in the sense that a similar perturbative series as in 3-dimension, which is computed via configuration space integral, yields an invariant of higher dimensional…
We show that perturbing the definition of sl(n) Khovanov-Rozansky link homology gives a lower bound on the slice genus of a knot. As a corollary this yields another proof of Milnor's conjecture on the slice genus of torus knots.
The refined Chern-Simons theory is a one-parameter deformation of the ordinary Chern-Simons theory on Seifert manifolds. It is defined via an index of the theory on N M5 branes, where the corresponding one-parameter deformation is a natural…
We consider the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants or Chern-Simons partition function at or around roots of unity $q=e^{2\pi i \frac{1}{K}}$ with rational level $K=\frac{r}{s}$ where $r$ and $s$ are coprime integers. From the exact…
The purpose of the paper is to introduce some conjectures regarding the analytic continuation and the arithmetic properties of quantum invariants of knotted objects. More precisely, we package the perturbative and nonperturbative invariants…
We observe that any knot invariant extends to virtual knots. The isotopy classification problem for virtual knots is reduced to an algebraic problem formulated in terms of an algebra of arrow diagrams. We introduce a new notion of finite…
We obtain new lower bounds of the minimal genus of a locally flat surface representing a 2-dimensional homology class in a topological 4-manifold with boundary, using the von Neumann-Cheeger-Gromov $\rho$-invariant. As an application our…
We show that the Casson knot invariant, linking number and Milnor's triple linking number, together with a certain 2-string link invariant $V_2$, are necessary and sufficient to express any string link Vassiliev invariant of order two.…
We give a useful classification of the metabelian unitary representations of pi_1(M_K), where M_K is the result of zero-surgery along a knot K in S^3. We show that certain eta invariants associated to metabelian representations pi_1(M_K)…
In 1982 Louis Kauffman conjectured that if a knot in the 3-sphere is a slice knot then on any Seifert surface for that knot there exists a homologically essential simple closed curve of self-linking zero which is itself a slice knot, or at…
The unknotting number of a knot is bounded from below by its slice genus. It is a well-known fact that the genera and unknotting numbers of torus knots coincide. In this note we characterize quasipositive knots for which the genus bound is…
It is well known that any three-manifold can be obtained by surgery on a framed link in $S^3$. Lickorish gave an elementary proof for the existence of the three-manifold invariants of Witten using a framed link description of the manifold…
We formulate a 4-dimensional higher gauge theoretic Chern-Simons theory. Its symmetry is encoded in a semistrict Lie 2-algebra equipped with an invariant non singular bilinear form. We analyze the gauge invariance of the theory and show…
A classical knot is described by a one-stroke trajectory with entanglements of a string. The replica method appears as a powerful tool in statistical mechanics for a polymer or self-avoiding walk. We consider this replica N to 0 limit in…
We introduce a new combinatorial method to encode knots and links with applications to knot invariants. Clasp diagrams defined in this paper are combinatorial blueprints for building knot diagrams out of full twists on two strings rather…
We consider Wilson loop observables for Chern-Simons theory at large N and its topological string dual and extend the previous checks for this duality to the case of links. We find an interesting structure involving representation/spin…
The pair (K,r) consisting of a knot K and a surjective map r from the knot group onto a dihedral group is said to be a p-colored knot. D. Moskovich conjectured that for any odd prime p there are exactly p equivalence classes of p-colored…