Related papers: Getting a handle on the Conway knot

A knot is an an embedding of a circle into three-dimensional space. We say that a knot is unknotted if there is an ambient isotopy of the embedding to a standard circle. By representing knots via planar diagrams, we discuss the problem of…

This paper presents evidence supporting the surprising conjecture that in the topological category the slice genus of a satellite knot $P(K)$ is bounded above by the sum of the slice genera of $K$ and $P(U)$. Our main result establishes…

Double twist knots $K_{m, n}$ are known to be rationally slice if $mn = 0$, $n = -m\pm 1$, or $n = -m$. In this paper, we prove the converse. It is done by showing that infinitely many prime power-fold cyclic branched covers of the other…

We compute the smooth 4-genera of the prime knots with 12 crossings whose values, as reported on the KnotInfo website, were unknown. This completes the calculation of the smooth 4-genus for all prime knots with 12 or fewer crossings.

The unknotting number of a knot is the minimum number of crossings one must change to turn that knot into the unknot. The algebraic unknotting number is the minimum number of crossing changes needed to transform a knot into an Alexander…

The Jones problem is a question whether there is a non-trivial knot with the trivial Jones polynomial in one variable $q$. The answer to this fundamental question is still unknown despite numerous attempts to explore it. In braid…

An oriented link L in a 3-sphere S in complex 2-space is a C-boundary if it bounds a piece of algebraic curve in the 4-ball bounded by S. Using Kronheimer and Mrowka's proof of the Thom Conjecture, we construct many oriented knots which are…

Let $X$ be a real algebraic variety with set of complex points $X_{\mathbb C}$ and set of real points $X_{\mathbb R}$. A complex slice of $X$ is a transverse intersection of $X_{\mathbb R}$ with a complex subvariety $V$ of $X_{\mathbb C}$.…

Given a knot in the 3-sphere, the non-orientable 4-genus or 4-dimensional crosscap number of a knot is the minimal first Betti number of non-orientable surfaces, smoothly and properly embedded in the 4-ball, with boundary the knot. In this…

Every knot can be embedded in the union of finitely many half planes with a common boundary line in such a way that the portion of the knot in each half plane is a properly embedded arc. The minimal number of such half planes is called the…

The first and last named authors have demonstrated the existence of knots for which every integral slope is non-characterizing. In this short note, we extend this result in two ways. There exists a knot that shares for every integer n the…

We use techniques of Freedman and Teichner to prove that, under certain circumstances, the multi-infection of a slice link is again slice (not necessarily smoothly slice). We provide a general context for proving links are slice that…

We introduce a new numerical knot invariant, termed the \textit{segment number}, which is derived from partitioned knot diagrams subject to specific over/under-crossing constraints. We prove that a knot is non-trivial if and only if its…

We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…

We prove a formula for the involutive concordance invariants of the cabled knots in terms of that of the companion knot and the pattern knot. As a consequence, we show that any iterated cable of a knot with parameters of the form (odd,1) is…

We investigate the question of the existence of a Lagrangian concordance between two Legendrian knots in $\mathbb{R}^3$. In particular, we give obstructions to a concordance from an arbitrary knot to the standard Legendrian unknot, in terms…

Given a knot complement X and its p-fold cyclic cover X_p, we identify twisted polynomials associated to 1-dimensional linear representations of the fundamental group of X_p with twisted polynomials associated to related p-dimensional…

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…

Conway's 99-graph problem is the second problem amongst the five 1000\$ 2017 open problems set. Four out of the five remain unsolved to this day, including the 99-graph problem. In this paper we quote Conway's definition of the problem and…

The contents of this 6-page paper have been subsumed into the 13-page paper, "A note on closed 3-braids", arXiv:0802.1072 [math.GT]. This paper is correct, but contains less information than the new one. The topological classification of…