Related papers: On Fox's trapezoidal conjecture

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…

The twisted Alexander polynomials of a space, associated to a linear representation $\sigma$ of the fundamental group, are non-abelian refinements of the classical Alexander polynomial from knot theory. In this paper, we show that they…

The mock Alexander polynomial is an extension of the classical Alexander polynomial, defined and studied for (virtual) knots and knotoids by the second and third authors. In this paper we consider the mock Alexander polynomial for…

For a local system on a compact hyperbolic threefold, under a cohomological assumption, we will show that the order of its twisted Alexander polynomial and of the Ruelle L function at $s=0$ coincide. Moreover we will show that their leading…

For knots in $S^3$, it is well-known that the Alexander polynomial of a ribbon knot factorizes as $f(t)f(t^{-1})$ for some polynomial $f(t)$. By contrast, the Alexander polynomial of a ribbon $2$-knot is not even symmetric in general. Via…

We calculate the twisted Alexander polynomials of all tunnel number one Montesinos knots associated to their $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-representations and obtain their leading coefficients and degrees. As a corollary, we get some interesting…

We extend recent work by Howie, Mathews and Purcell to simplify the calculation of A-polynomials for any family of hyperbolic knots related by twisting. The main result follows from the observation that equations defining the deformation…

We give a geometric proof of the following result of Juhasz. \emph{Let $a_g$ be the leading coefficient of the Alexander polynomial of an alternating knot $K$. If $|a_g|<4$ then $K$ has a unique minimal genus Seifert surface.} In doing so,…

X.-S. Lin and Z. Wang recently made a conjecture concerning the integrality of the Taylor coefficients of the averaged Jones polynomial of algebraically split links. This question is related to a conjectural integrality result for the…

We prove that if an alternating 3-braid knot has unknotting number one, then there must exist an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram of it, and we enumerate such knots. The argument combines the obstruction to unknotting number…

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…

We examine the conjecture, due to Champanerkar, Kofman, and Purcell that $\text{vol}(K) < 2 \pi \log \det (K)$ for alternating hyperbolic links, where $\text{vol}(K) = \text{vol}(S^3\backslash K)$ is the hyperbolic volume and $\det(K)$ is…

We introduce stable equivalence classes of oriented links in orientable three-manifolds that are orientation $I$-bundles over closed but not necessarily orientable surfaces. We call these twisted links, and show that they subsume the…

The Alexander polynomials \Delta_{n,3}(t) and \Delta_{n,4}(t) are presented as a sum of the Alexander polynomials \Delta_{k,2}(t). These polynomials are also expressed in the form of a sum of Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. These…

The contents of this 6-page paper have been subsumed into the 13-page paper, "A note on closed 3-braids", arXiv:0802.1072 [math.GT]. This paper is correct, but contains less information than the new one. The topological classification of…

Extended welded links are a generalization of Fenn, Rim\'{a}nyi, and Rourke's welded links. Their braided counterpart are extended welded braids, which are closely related to ribbon braids and loop braids. In this paper we prove versions of…

We discuss twists on Frobenius algebras in the context of link homology. In his paper in 2006, Khovanov asserted that a twist of a Frobenius algebra yields an isomorphic chain complex on each link diagram. Although the result has been…

We establish a new extension result for twisted canonical forms defined on a hypersurface with simple normal crossings of a projective manifold. Some of the examples presented in the appendix are showing that the bounds we obtain for the…

Dasbach and Lin proved a "volumish theorem" for alternating links. We prove the analogue for alternating link diagrams on surfaces, which provides bounds on the hyperbolic volume of a link in a thickened surface in terms of coefficients of…

We prove the conjecture of Przytycki and Sazdanovic that the Khovanov homology of the closure of a 3-stranded braid only contains torsion of order 2. This conjecture has been known for six out of seven classes in the Murasugi-classification…