Related papers: Alternating knots do not admit cosmetic crossings

We use Heegaard Floer homology to give obstructions to unknotting a knot with a single crossing change. These restrictions are particularly useful in the case where the knot in question is alternating. As an example, we use them to classify…

We study cosmetic contact surgeries along transverse knots in the standard contact 3-sphere, i.e. contact surgeries that yield again the standard contact 3-sphere. The main result is that we can exclude non-trivial cosmetic contact…

Let K be a non-trivial knot in the 3-sphere and let Y be the 3-manifold obtained by surgery on K with surgery-coefficient 1. Using tools from gauge theory and symplectic topology, it is shown that the fundamental group of Y admits a…

We construct cobordism maps for the \textit{minus} version of instanton knot homology associated to a \textit{specially decorated} knot cobordisms of arbitrary genus between two null-homologous knots in closed oriented $3$-manifolds. As an…

It is conjectured that, on a non-trivial knot in the 3-sphere, no pair of Dehn surgeries along distinct slopes are purely cosmetic, that is, none of them yield 3-manifolds those are orientation-preservingly homeomorphic. In this paper, we…

We consider the question of when the operation of contact surgery with positive surgery coefficient, along a knot $K$ in a contact 3-manifold $Y$, gives rise to a weakly fillable contact structure. We show that this happens if and only if…

In ``Knots in lattice homology", Ozsv\'ath, Stipsicz, and Szab\'o showed that knot lattice homology satisfies a surgery formula similar to the one relating knot Floer homology and Heegaard Floer homology, and in previous work, I showed that…

We use technology from sutured manifold theory and the theory of Heegaard splittings to relate genus reducing crossing changes on knots in S^3 to twists on surfaces arising in circular Heegaard splittings for knot complements. In a separate…

The concordance group of knots in the three-sphere contains an infinite subgroup generated by elements of order two, each one of which is represented by a knot K with the property that for every n > 0, the n-fold cyclic cover of S^3…

We prove the cosmetic crossing conjecture for genus one knots with non-trivial Alexander polynomial. We also prove the conjecture for genus one knots with trivial Alexander polynomial, under some additional assumptions.

Ozsvath and Szabo defined an analog of the Froyshov invariant in the form of a correction term for the grading in Heegaard Floer homology. Applying this to the double cover of the 3-sphere branched over a knot K, we obtain an invariant…

We show that the fundamental group of the double branched cover of an infinite family of homologically thin, non-quasi-alternating knots is not left-orderable, giving further support for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon, and Watson that an…

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere with 2-fold branched covering space M. If for some prime p congruent to 3 mod 4 the p-torsion in the first homology of M is cyclic with odd exponent, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…

We consider a homology sphere $M_n(K_1,K_2)$ presented by two knots $K_1,K_2$ with linking number 1 and framing $(0,n)$. We call the manifold {\it Matsumoto's manifold}. We show that there exists no contractible bound of $M_n(T_{2,3},K_2)$…

This thesis is concerned with the question of when the double branched cover of an alternating knot can arise by Dehn surgery on a knot in $S^3$. We approach this problem using a surgery obstruction, first developed by Greene, which…

The Cyclic Surgery Theorem and Moser's work on surgeries on torus knots imply that for any non-trivial knot in $S^3$, there are at most two integer surgeries that produce a lens space. This paper investigates how many positive integer…

We show that the distance of a link $K$ with respect to a bridge surface of any genus determines a lower bound on the genus of essential surfaces and Heegaard surfaces in the manifolds that result from non-trivial Dehn surgeries on the…

We classify the positive definite intersection forms that arise from smooth 4-manifolds with torsion-free homology bounded by positive integer surgeries on the right-handed trefoil. A similar, slightly less complete classification is given…

Let $LHT$ be a left handed trefoil knot and $K$ be any knot. We define $M_n(K)$ to be the homology $3$-sphere which is represented by a simple link of $LHT$ and $LHT \sharp K$ with framings $0$ and $n$ respectively. Starting with this link,…

We construct an infinite family of hyperbolic, homologically thin knots that are not quasi-alternating. To establish the latter, we argue that the branched double-cover of each knot in the family does not bound a negative definite…