Related papers: Satellite knots that cannot be represented by posi…
We prove that satellite operations that satisfy a certain positivity condition and have winding number other than one are not homomorphisms. The argument uses the $d$-invariants of branched covers. In the process, we prove a technical…
We study spectral gaps of cellular differentials for finite cyclic coverings of knot complements. Their asymptotics can be expressed in terms of irrationality exponents associated with ratios of logarithms of algebraic numbers determined by…
We classify nonnegatively curved simply connected 4-manifolds with circle symmetry up to equivariant diffeomorphisms. The main problem is rule out knotted curves in the singular set of the orbit space. As an extension of this work we…
We prove some necessary conditions for a link to be either concordant to a quasi-positive link, quasi-positive, positive, or the closure of a positive braid. The main applications of our results are a characterisation of positive links with…
The Helon model identifies Standard Model quarks and leptons with certain framed braids joined together at both ends by a connecting node (disk). These surfaces with boundary are called braided 3-belts (or simply belts). Twisting and…
We show that the problem of recognizing that a knot diagram represents a specific torus knot, or any torus knot at all, is in the complexity class ${\sf NP} \cap {\sf co\text{-}NP}$, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis. We also show…
We show that a positive braid knot has maximal topological 4-genus exactly if it has maximal signature invariant. As an application, we determine all positive braid knots with maximal topological 4-genus and compute the topological 4-genus…
We show that braid groups with at most 6 strands are CAT(0) using the close connection between these groups, the associated non-crossing partition complexes and the embeddability of their diagonal links into spherical buildings of type A.…
Let $D$ be a diagram of an alternating knot with unknotting number one. The branched double cover of $S^3$ branched over $D$ is an L-space obtained by half integral surgery on a knot $K_D$. We denote the set of all such knots $K_D$ by…
A weaving knot is an alternating knot whose minimal diagram is a closed braid of a lattice-like pattern. In this paper, the warping degree of a braid diagram is defined, and upper bounds of the unknotting number and the region unknotting…
Call a smooth knot (or smooth link) in the unit sphere in $\mathbb{C}^2$ analytic (respectively, smoothly analytic) if it bounds a complex curve (respectively, a smooth complex curve) in the complex ball. Let $K$ be a smoothly analytic…
We provide a new proof of the following results of H. Schubert: If K is a satellite knot with companion J and pattern L that lies in a solid torus T in which it has index k, then the bridge numbers satisfy the following: 1) The bridge…
We characterize the fractional Dehn twist coefficient of a braid in terms of a slope of the homogenization of the Upsilon function, where Upsilon is the function-valued concordance homomorphism defined by Ozsv\'ath, Stipsicz, and Szab\'o.…
A knot type is exchange reducible if an arbitrary closed n-braid representative can be changed to a closed braid of minimum braid index by a finite sequence of braid isotopies, exchange moves and +/- destabilizations. In the manuscript [J…
We use some Lie group theory and Budney's unitarization of the Lawrence-Krammer representation, to prove that for generic parameters of definite form the image of the representation (also on certain types of subgroups) is dense in the…
We determine the locally flat cobordism distance between torus knots with small and large braid index, up to high precision. Here small means 2, 3, 4, or 6. As an application, we derive a surprising fact about torus knots that appear as…
We study Question 7.9 in the paper "Monoids in the mapping class group" by Etnyre and Van Horn-Morris; whether a symmetric mapping class admitting a positive factorization is a lift of a quasi-positive braid. We answer affirmatively for…
There is an infinitely generated free subgroup of the smooth knot concordance group with the property that no nontrivial element in this subgroup can be represented by an alternating knot. This subgroup has the further property that every…
We define braid presentation of edge-oriented spatial graphs as a natural generalization of braid presentation of oriented links. We show that every spatial graph has a braid presentation. For an oriented link it is known that the braid…
We introduce a new algebraic topological technique to detect non-fibred knots in the three sphere using the twisted Alexander invariants. As an application, we show that for any Seifert matrix of a knot with a nontrivial Alexander…