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Related papers: Positive Knots and Ribbon Concordance

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It is conjectured that for each knot $K$ in $S^3$, the fundamental group of its complement surjects onto only finitely many distinct knot groups. Applying character variety theory we obtain an affirmative solution of the conjecture for a…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-03-18 Michel Boileau , Steve Boyer , Alan W. Reid , Shicheng Wang

We classify all knot diagrams of genus two and three, and give applications to positive, alternating and homogeneous knots, including a classification of achiral genus 2 alternating knots, slice or achiral 2-almost positive knots, a proof…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2008-08-30 A. Stoimenow

Let $K$ be a prime knot in $S^3$ and $G(K)=\pi_1(S^3-K)$ the knot group. We write $K_1 \geq K_2$ if there exists a surjective homomorphism from $G(K_1)$ onto $G(K_2)$. In this paper, we determine this partial order on the set of prime knots…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-06-23 Keiichi Horie , Teruaki Kitano , Mineko Matsumoto , Masaaki Suzuki

It was asked by J.Birman, Williams, and L.Rudolph whether nontrivial Lorentz knots have always positive signature. Lorentz knots are examples of positive braids (in our convention they have all crossings negative so they are negative…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-05-08 Jozef H. Przytycki

We find that Alexander polynomial of a ribbon knot in $ \mathbb{Z}HS^3 $ is determined by the intrinsic singularity information of its ribbon, and give a formula to calculate Alexander polynomial of a ribbon knot by that. We define half…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-05-21 Sheng Bai

Let $K, K'$ be ribbon knottings of $n$-spheres with $1$-handles in $S^{n+2}$, $n\geq 2$. We show that if the knot quandles of these knots are isomorphic, then the ribbon knottings are stably equivalent, in the sense of Nakanishi and…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-05-13 Blake Karl Winter

The unknotting number $u$ and the genus $g$ of braid positive knots are equal, as shown by Rudolph. We prove the stronger statement that any positive braid diagram of a genus $g$ knot contains $g$ crossings, such that changing them produces…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Marc Kegel , Lukas Lewark , Naageswaran Manikandan , Filip Misev , Leo Mousseau , Marithania Silvero

For a knot K, the concordance crosscap number, c(K), is the minimum crosscap number among all knots concordant to K. Building on work of G. Zhang, which studied the determinants of knots with c(K) < 2, we apply the Alexander polynomial to…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2013-10-29 Charles Livingston

We establish homotopy ribbon concordance obstructions coming from the Blanchfield form and Levine-Tristram signatures. Then, as an application of twisted Alexander polynomials, we show that for every knot K with nontrivial Alexander…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2022-09-05 Stefan Friedl , Takahiro Kitayama , Lukas Lewark , Matthias Nagel , Mark Powell

Given a positive integer $n$, we say that two knots are $V_n$-equivalent if they have the same Vassiliev invariants of order $\le n$. We showed that the $V_n$-equivalence classes of ribbon knots form a group, the operation being induced by…

q-alg · Mathematics 2008-02-03 Ka Yi Ng

We provide new information about the structure of the abelian group of topological concordance classes of knots in $S^3$. One consequence is that there is a subgroup of infinite rank consisting entirely of knots with vanishing Casson-Gordon…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2007-10-23 Tim D. Cochran , Kent E. Orr , Peter Teichner

A knot in $S^3$ is rationally slice if it bounds a disk in a rational homology ball. We give an infinite family of rationally slice knots that are linearly independent in the knot concordance group. In particular, our examples are all…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2023-02-01 Jennifer Hom , Sungkyung Kang , JungHwan Park , Matthew Stoffregen

For a ribbon knot, it is a folk conjecture that the rank of its knot Floer homology must be 1 modulo 8, and another folk conjecture says the same about reduced Khovanov homology. We give the first counter-examples to both of these folk…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2023-03-09 Nathan M. Dunfield , Sherry Gong , Thomas Hockenhull , Marco Marengon , Michael Willis

In the early 1980's Mike Freedman showed that all knots with trivial Alexander polynomial are topologically slice (with fundamental group Z). This paper contains the first new examples of topologically slice knots. In fact, we give a…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-11-26 Stefan Friedl , Peter Teichner

We define a knot to be $\gamma_0$-sharp if its Seifert genus is detected by the concordance invariant $\gamma_0$, which arises from the immersed curve formalism in bordered Heegaard Floer homology. We show that a connected sum of…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2025-07-29 Jennifer Hom , JungHwan Park

A partial order on the set of prime knots can be defined by the existence of an epimorphism between knot groups. We prove that all the prime knots with up to $6$ crossings are minimal. We also show that each fibered knot with the…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-12-11 Teruaki Kitano , Masaaki Suzuki

In this paper we study rational real algebraic knots in $\R P^3$. We show that two real algebraic knots of degree $\leq5$ are rigidly isotopic if and only if their degrees and encomplexed writhes are equal. We also show that any irreducible…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2011-08-08 Johan Björklund

A knot $K_1$ is said to be Gordian adjacent to a knot $K_2$ if $K_1$ is an intermediate knot on an unknotting sequence of $K_2$. We extend previous results on Gordian adjacency by showing sufficient conditions for Gordian adjacency between…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2021-01-12 Tolson H. Bell , David C. Luo , Luke Seaton , Samuel P. Serra

The first and third authors recently proved that for each knot $K\subset S^3$ there are only finitely many hyperbolic fibered knots which are ribbon concordant to $K$. In this paper, we remove the hyperbolic constraint, proving that every…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2026-02-25 John A. Baldwin , Jonathan Hanselman , Steven Sivek

Levine defined the rational algebraic knot concordance group and proved that each nontrivial element is of order two, of order four, or of infinite order. The determination of the order of an element depends on a p-adic analysis for all…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2013-09-30 Charles Livingston