Related papers: Small Dehn surgery and SU(2)

In this thesis, we prove several results concerning field-theoretic invariants of knots and 3-manifolds. In Chapter 2, for any knot $K$ in a closed, oriented 3-manifold $M$, we use $SU(2)$ representation spaces and the Lagrangian field…

We prove an integral surgery formula for framed instanton homology $I^\sharp(Y_m(K))$ for any knot $K$ in a $3$-manifold $Y$ with $[K]=0\in H_1(Y;\mathbb{Q})$ and $m\neq 0$. Though the statement is similar to Ozsv\'ath-Szab\'o's integral…

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…

An attempt is made to conceptualize the derivation as well as to facilitate the computation of Ohtsuki's rational invariants $\lambda_n$ of integral homology 3-spheres extracted from Reshetikhin-Turaev SU(2) quantum invariants. Several…

We determine the lens spaces that arise by integer Dehn surgery along a knot in the three-sphere. Specifically, if surgery along a knot produces a lens space, then there exists an equivalent surgery along a Berge knot with the same knot…

These are notes of a talk given at the Mathematische Arbeitstagung 2005 in Bonn. Following ideas of Ozbagci-Stipsicz, a proof based on contact Dehn surgery is given of Eliashberg's concave filling theorem for contact 3-manifolds. The role…

We prove that the knot Floer homology of a fibered knot is nontrivial in its next-to-top Alexander grading. Immediate applications include new proofs of Krcatovich's result that knots with $L$-space surgeries are prime and Hedden and…

For every $n \geq 4$, we demonstrate the existence of non-isotopic smooth $(n-2)$-knots in $S^n$ with diffeomorphic traces by generalising the RBG link construction to all dimensions. Conversely, we prove that for every $n \geq 4$, the…

In this paper we find a family of knots with trivial Alexander polynomial, and construct two non-isotopic Seifert surfaces for each member in our family. In order to distinguish the surfaces we study the sutured Floer homology invariants of…

We prove that for any integer $n$ there exist infinitely many different knots in $S^3$ such that $n$-surgery on those knots yields the same 3-manifold. In particular, when $|n|=1$ homology spheres arise from these surgeries. This answers…

For a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$, Dehn surgery along slope $r \in \Q \cup \{\frac10\}$ is {\em exceptional} if it results in a non-hyperbolic manifold. We say meridional surgery, $r = \frac10$, is {\em trivial} as it recovers the manifold…

We classify $SU(2)$-cyclic and $SU(2)$-abelian 3-manifolds, for which every representation of the fundamental group into $SU(2)$ has cyclic or abelian image respectively, among geometric 3-manifolds which are not hyperbolic. As an…

In an earlier paper, we used the absolute grading on Heegaard Floer homology to give restrictions on knots in $S^3$ which admit lens space surgeries. The aim of the present article is to exhibit stronger restrictions on such knots, arising…

Let $K$ be a rationally null-homologous knot in a three-manifold $Y$. We construct a version of knot Floer homology in this context, including a description of the Floer homology of a three-manifold obtained as Morse surgery on the knot…

The odd character variety of a Riemann surface is a moduli space of SO(3) representations of the fundamental group which can be interpreted as the moduli space of stable holomorphic rank 2 bundles of odd degree and fixed determinant. This…

This paper proves that every oriented non-disk Seifert surface $F$ for a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is smoothly concordant to a Seifert surface $F^{\prime}$ for a hyperbolic knot $K^{\prime}$ of arbitrarily large volume. This gives a new and simpler…

For each partial flag manifold of SU(N), we define a Floer homology theory for knots in 3-manifolds, using instantons with codimension-2 singularities.

The A-polynomial of a knot in S^3 defines a complex plane curve associated to the set of representations of the fundamental group of the knot exterior into SL(2,C). Here, we show that a non-trivial knot in S^3 has a non-trivial…

Let $L$ be an $n$-component link ($n>1$) with pairwise nonzero linking numbers in a rational homology $3$-sphere $Y$. Assume the link complement $X:=Y\setminus\nu(L)$ has nondegenerate Thurston norm. In this paper, we study when a Thurston…

Under certain homological hypotheses on a compact 4-manifold, we prove exactness of the topological surgery sequence at the stably smoothable normal invariants. The main examples are the class of finite connected sums of 4-manifolds with…