Related papers: Doubled Disks and Satellite Surfaces
A knot in a solid torus defines a map on the set of (smooth or topological) concordance classes of knots in $S^3$. This set admits a group structure, but a conjecture of Hedden suggests that satellite maps never induce interesting…
Let $K\subset S^3$ be a knot and $\eta, \gamma \subset S^3\backslash K$ be simple closed curves. Denote by $\Sigma_q(K)$ the $q$-fold cyclic branched cover of $K$. We give an explicit formula for computing the linking numbers between lifts…
Given a closed four-manifold $X$ with an indefinite intersection form, we consider smoothly embedded surfaces in $X \setminus $int$(B^4)$, with boundary a knot $K \subset S^3$. We give several methods to bound the genus of such surfaces in…
In this paper, we prove than given two cubic knots $K_1$, $K_2$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$, they are isotopic if and only if one can pass from one to the other by a finite sequence of cubulated moves. These moves are analogous to the Reidemeister…
Given a nonorientable, locally flatly embedded surface in the $4$-sphere of nonorientable genus $h$, Massey showed that the normal Euler number lies in $\lbrace -2h,-2h+4,\ldots,2h-4,2h \rbrace$. We prove that every such surface with knot…
In this note we describe a family of arguments that link the homotopy-type of a) the diffeomorphism group of the disc $D^n$, b) the space of co-dimension one embedded spheres in a sphere and c) the homotopy-type of the space of co-dimension…
The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of…
Let $K$ be a knot in the 3-sphere, viewed as the ideal boundary of hyperbolic 4-space $\mathbb{H}^4$. We prove that the number of minimal discs in $\mathbb{H}^4$ with ideal boundary $K$ is a knot invariant. I.e.\ the number is finite and…
We prove obstructions to a strongly negative amphichiral knot bounding an equivariant slice disk in the 4-ball using the determinant, Spinc-structures and Donaldson's theorem. Of the 16 slice strongly negative amphichiral knots with 12 or…
This paper presents evidence supporting the surprising conjecture that in the topological category the slice genus of a satellite knot $P(K)$ is bounded above by the sum of the slice genera of $K$ and $P(U)$. Our main result establishes…
A link is called $\chi-$slice if it bounds a smooth properly embedded surface in the 4-ball with no closed components and Euler characteristic 1. If a link has a single component, then it is $\chi-$slice if and only if it is slice. One…
Since the first work on exotic smoothness in physics, it was folklore to assume a direct influence of exotic smoothness to quantum gravity. Thus, the negative result of Duston (arXiv:0911.4068) was a surprise. A closer look into the…
We use bordered Floer homology, specifically the immersed curve interpretation of the bordered pairing theorem, to compute various three- and four-dimensional invariants of satellite knots with arbitrary companions and patterns from a…
Fintushel-Stern's knot surgery gave many pairs of exotic manifolds, which are homeomorphic but non-diffeomorphic. We show that if an elliptic fibration has two parallel, oppositely oriented vanishing circles (for example $S^2\times S^2$ or…
We show that the regular Slodowy slice to the sum of two semisimple adjoint orbits of $GL(n,C)$ is isomorphic to the deformation of the $D_2$-singularity if $n=2$, the Dancer deformation of the double cover of the Atiyah-Hitchin manifold 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…
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…
In this manuscript we prove that if two cuspidal plane curves have equivalent braid monodromy factorizations, then they are smoothly isotopic in the plane. As a consequence of this and the Chisini conjecture, we obtain that if two…
We use bordered Heegaard Floer homology to compute the tau invariant of a family of satellite knots obtained via twisted infection along two components of the Borromean rings, a generalization of Whitehead doubling. We show that tau of the…
Let $K$ be a knot in a rational homology sphere $M$. This paper investigates the question of when modifying $K$ by adding $m>0$ half-twists to two oppositely-oriented strands, while keeping the rest of $K$ fixed, produces a knot isotopic to…