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In 1979, Hartley and Kawauchi proved that the Conway polynomial of a strongly negative amphichiral knot factors as $f(z)f(-z)$. In this paper, we normalize the factor $f(z)$ to define the half-Conway polynomial. First, we prove that the…
A knot K in the 3-sphere is said to have Property nR if, whenever K is a component of an n-component link L and some integral surgery on L produces the connected sum of n copies of S^1 x S^2, there is a sequence of handle slides on L that…
We prove that positive knots and knots with braid index three in the 3-sphere satisfy the Property P conjecture.
Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for the infinitesimal rigidity of braced grids in the plane with respect to non-Euclidean norms. Component rectangles of the grid may carry 0, 1 or 2 diagonal braces, and the combinatorial…
Given a knot diagram $D$, we construct a semi-threading circle for it which can be an axis of $D$ as a closed braid depending on knot diagrams. In particular, we consider semi-threading circles for minimal diagrams of a knot with respect to…
Every knot has a plat projection, obtained by closing up a braid with bridges. The plat projection is determined by the number of strands and the number of rows of twist regions in the braid, and an integer number of crossings in each twist…
We prove that each overtwisted contact structure has knot types that are represented by infinitely many distinct transverse knots all with the same self-linking number. In some cases, we can even classify all such knots. We also show…
We show that two knots have matching Vassiliev invariants of order less than n if and only if they are equivalent modulo the nth group of the lower central series of some pure braid group, thus characterizing Vassiliev's knot invariants in…
The Kontsevich integral $Z$ associates to each braid $b$ (or more generally knot $k$) invariants $Z_i(b)$ lying in finite dimensional vector spaces, for $i = 0, 1, 2, ...$. These values are not yet known, except in special cases. The…
We analyze properties of links which have diagrams with a small number of negative crossings. We show that if a nontrivial link has a diagram with all crossings positive except possibly one, then the signature of the link is negative. If a…
Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…
Although most knots are nonalternating, modern research in knot theory seems to focus on alternating knots. We consider here nonalternating knots and their properties. Specifically, we show certain classes of knots have nontrivial Jones…
An $L$-space knot is a knot that admits a positive Dehn surgery yielding an $L$-space. Many known hyperbolic $L$-space knots are braid positive, meaning they can be represented as the closure of a positive braid. Recently, Baker and Kegel…
We show that a link in an open book can be realized as a strongly quasipositive braid if and only if it bounds a Legendrian ribbon with respect to the associated contact structure. This generalizes a result due to Baader and Ishikawa for…
We show that if K is a satellite knot which admits a generalized cosmetic crossing change of order q with |q| \geq 6, then K admits a pattern knot with a generalized cosmetic crossing change of the same order. As a consequence of this, we…
We show that a group presented by a labelled oriented tree presentation in which the tree has diameter at most three is an HNN extension of a finitely presented group. From results of Silver, it then follows that the corresponding higher…
We investigate the properties of knots in S^3 which bound Klein bottles, such that a pushoff of the knot has zero linking number with the knot, i.e. has zero framing. This is motivated by the many results in the literature regarding slice…
Traditionally, knot theorists have considered projections of knots where there are two strands meeting at every crossing. A multi-crossing is a crossing where more than two strands meet at a single point, such that each strand bisects the…
We define the twisted Blanchfield pairing of a symmetric triad of chain complexes over a group ring Z[G], together with a unitary representation of G over an Ore domain with involution. We prove that the pairing is sesquilinear, and we…
A lattice is called well-rounded, if its lattice vectors of minimal length span the ambient space. We show that there are interesting connections between the existence of well-rounded sublattices and coincidence site lattices (CSLs).…