Related papers: Standard position for surfaces in link complements…

We introduce a simple combinatorial way, which we call a rectangular diagram of a surface, to represent a surface in the three-sphere. It has a particularly nice relation to the standard contact structure on $\mathbb S^3$ and to rectangular…

We give a refined value group for the collection of triple linking numbers of links in the 3-sphere. Given two links with the same pairwise linking numbers we show that they have the same refined triple linking number collection if and only…

By using non-positively curved cubings of prime alternating link exteriors, we prove that certain ideal triangulations of their complements, derived from reduced alternating diagrams, are non-degenerate, in the sense that none of the edges…

We show that any smooth one-dimensional link in the real projective three-plane is the fixed-point locus of a smooth symplectic surface in the complex projective three-plane which is invariant under complex conjugation. The degree of the…

Let $D$ be a cellular alternating link diagram on a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$. We prove that if $D$ has no removable nugatory crossings then each checkerboard surface from $D$ is $\pi_1$-essential and contains no essential closed…

Let $L$ be a non-split prime alternating link with $n>0$ crossings. We show that for each fixed $g$, the number of genus-$g$ Seifert surfaces for $L$ is bounded by an explicitly given polynomial in $n$. The result also holds for all…

Classical fully augmented links have explicit hyperbolic geometry, and have diagrams on the 2-sphere in the 3-sphere. We generalise to construct fully augmented links projected to the reflection surface of any 3-manifold obtained by…

Suppose a link K in a 3-manifold M is in bridge position with respect to two different bridge surfaces P and Q, both of which are c-weakly incompressible in the complement of K. Then either P and Q can be properly isotoped to intersect in a…

We interpret a normal surface in a (singular) three-manifold in terms of the homology of a chain complex. This allows us to study the relation between normal surfaces and their quadrilateral co-ordinates. Specifically, we give a proof of an…

We show that if a knot or link has n thin levels when put in thin position then its exterior contains a collection of n disjoint, non-parallel, planar, meridional, essential surfaces. A corollary is that there are at least n/3 tetrahedra in…

We prove that every smoothly embedded surface in a 4--manifold can be isotoped to be in bridge position with respect to a given trisection of the ambient 4--manifold; that is, after isotopy, the surface meets components of the trisection in…

For a given branched covering between closed connected surfaces, there are several easy relations one can establish between the Euler characteristics of the surfaces, their orientability, the total degree, and the local degrees at the…

We introduce and study bridge decompositions for 3-manifolds embedded in the 5-sphere. These generalize both the classical notion of bridge position for knots in the 3-sphere and the bridge trisections of surfaces in the 4-sphere due to…

Kuperberg [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 3 (2003) 587-591] has shown that a virtual knot corresponds (up to generalized Reidemeister moves) to a unique embedding in a thichened surface of minimal genus. If a virtual knot diagram is equivalent to a…

A closed, orientable, splitting surface in an oriented $3$-manifold is a topologically minimal surface of index $n$ if its associated disk complex is $(n-2)$-connected but not $(n-1)$-connected. A critical surface is a topologically minimal…

For any link in the 3-sphere, there is a natural lower bound for the unlinking number in terms of the classical signature. We prove that if this lower bound is sharp for a special alternating link $L$, then the unlinking number of $L$ is…

It is shown that given any link-manifold, there is an algorithm to decide if the manifold contains an embedded, essential planar surface; if it does, the algorithm will construct one. If a slope on the boundary of the link-manifold is…

We prove that if $L$ is a non-trivial alternating link embedded (without crossings) in a closed surface $F\subset S^3$, then $F$ has a compressing disk whose boundary intersects $L$ in no more than two points. Moreover, whenever the surface…

We consider mean-convex Alexandrov embedded surfaces in the round unit 3-sphere, and show under which conditions it is possible to continuously deform these preserving mean-convex Alexandrov embeddedness.

This} paper presents relations between least area and normal surfaces, embedded in either a Euclidean or hyperbolic $3$-manifold. A relaxed version of normal surfaces, termed quasi-normal, is introduced, and it is shown that under…