Related papers: $0$-Shake Slice Implies Slice

I present a formula for the Casson invariant of knots associated with divides. The formula is written in terms of Arnold's invariants of pieces of the divide. Various corollaries are discussed.

This thesis develops some general calculational techniques for finding the orders of knots in the topological concordance group C. The techniques currently available in the literature are either too theoretical, applying to only a small…

In the early 1980's Mike Freedman showed that all knots with trivial Alexander polynomial are topologically slice (with fundamental group Z). This paper contains the first new examples of topologically slice knots. In fact, we give a…

In 2009, Kawauchi proved that every strongly negative amphichiral knot is rationally slice. However, as shown by Hartley in 1980, there are examples of negative amphichiral knots that are not strongly negative amphichiral. In this paper, we…

Let C_T be the subgroup of the smooth knot concordance group generated by topologically slice knots and let C_D be the subgroup generated by knots with trivial Alexander polynomial. We prove the quotient C_T/C_D is infinitely generated, and…

Let {T_n} be the bipolar filtration of the smooth concordance group of topologically slice knots, which was introduced by Cochran, Harvey, and Horn. It is known that for each n not equal to 1 the quotient group T_n/T_{n+1} has infinite rank…

We study the double slice genus of a knot, a natural generalization of slice genus. We define a notion called band number, a natural generalization of band unknotting number, and prove it is an upper bound on double slice genus. Our bound…

We study the equivariant 4-genus of strongly invertible knots in the $S^3$ boundary of 4-manifolds with involution. We provide techniques for constructing slice disks for knots in various symmetric 4-manifolds via an equivariant version of…

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 give a new geometric obstruction to the iterated Bing double of a knot being a slice link: for n>1 the (n+1)-st iterated Bing double of a knot is rationally slice if and only if the n-th iterated Bing double of the knot is rationally…

In a classic paper Zeeman introduced the k-twist spin of a knot K and showed that the exterior of a twist spin fibers over S^1. In particular this result shows that the knot K # -K is doubly slice. In this paper we give a quick proof of…

A fixed knot $K$ acts via Murasugi sum on the space $\mathcal{S}$ of isotopy classes of knots. This operation endows $\mathcal{S}$ with a directed graph structure denoted by $M\kern-1pt SG(K)$. We show that any given family of knots in…

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…

We classify closed 3-braids which are L-space knots.

We give a necessary, and in some cases sufficient, condition for sliceness inside the family of pretzel knots $P (p_1,...,p_n)$ with one $p_i$ even. The three stranded case yields two interesting families of examples: the first consists of…

Conjecturally, a knot is slice if and only if its positive Whitehead double is slice. We consider an analogue of this conjecture for slice disks in the four-ball: two slice disks of a knot are smoothly isotopic if and only if their positive…

We introduce an oriented rational band move, a generalization of an ordinary oriented band move, and show that if a knot $K$ in the three-sphere can be made into the $(n+1)$-component unlink by $n$ oriented rational band moves, then $K$ is…

The splitting number of a link is the minimum number of crossing changes between distinct components that is required to convert the link into a split link. We provide a bound on the splitting number in terms of the four-genus of related…

One strategy for distinguishing smooth structures on closed $4$-manifolds is to produce a knot $K$ in $S^3$ that is slice in one smooth filling $W$ of $S^3$ but not slice in some homeomorphic smooth filling $W'$. In this paper we explore…

We introduce a technique for showing classical knots and links are not slice. As one application we show that the iterated Bing doubles of many algebraically slice knots are not topologically slice. Some of the proofs do not use the…