Related papers: Is every knot isotopic to the unknot?
A periodic tangle is a one-dimensional submanifold in $\mathbb{R}^3$ that has translational symmetry in one, two or three transverse directions. A periodic tangle can be seen as the universal cover of a link in the solid torus, the…
A transverse knot is a knot that is transverse to the planes of the standard contact structure on real 3-space. In this paper we prove the Markov Theorem for transverse braids, which states that two transverse closed braids that are…
For a knot K in S^3, let T(K) be the characteristic toric sub-orbifold of the orbifold (S^3,K) as defined by Bonahon and Siebenmann. If K has unknotting number one, we show that an unknotting arc for K can always be found which is disjoint…
We consider the question: "If the zero-framed surgeries on two oriented knots in the 3-sphere are integral homology cobordant, preserving the homology class of the positive meridians, are the knots themselves concordant?" We show that this…
Let $LHT$ be a left handed trefoil knot and $K$ be any knot. We define $M_n(K)$ to be the homology $3$-sphere which is represented by a simple link of $LHT$ and $LHT \sharp K$ with framings $0$ and $n$ respectively. Starting with this link,…
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…
The closure of a braid in a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ is a link in $\Sigma\times S^1$. We classify such closed surface braids up to isotopy and homeomorphism (with a small indeterminacy for isotopy of closed sphere braids),…
Bing doubling is an operation which produces a 2-component boundary link B(K) from a knot K. If K is slice, then B(K) is easily seen to be boundary slice. In this paper, we investigate whether the converse holds. Our main result is that if…
Given a (genus 2) cube-with-holes M, i.e. the complement in S^3 of a handlebody H, we relate intrinsic properties of M (like its cut number) with extrinsic features depending on the way the handlebody H is knotted in S^3. Starting from a…
In this paper, we study topological concordance modulo local knotting, or almost-concordance, of knots in 3-manifolds $M\neq S^3$. A. Levine, Celoria (arXiv:1602.05476v4), and Friedl-Nagel-Orson-Powell (arXiv:1611.09114v2) conjecture that,…
The following is a long-standing open question: "If the zero-framed surgeries on two knots in the 3-sphere are integral homology cobordant, are the knots themselves concordant?" We show that an obvious rational version of this question has…
In this paper we look at the knot complement problem for L-space $\mathbb{Z}$-homology spheres. We show that an L-space $\mathbb{Z}$-homology sphere $Y$ cannot be obtained as a non-trivial surgery along a knot $K\subset Y$. As a…
All checkerboard surfaces for a given knot in $S^3$ are related by isotopy and "kinking" and "unkinking" moves, which change the surfaces' Goeritz matrices like this: $G\leftrightarrow G\oplus [\pm1]=\left[\begin{smallmatrix} G&\mathbf{0}\\…
We investigate the disparity between smooth and topological almost concordance of knots in general 3-manifolds Y. Almost concordance is defined by considering knots in Y modulo concordance in Yx[0,1] and the action of the concordance group…
By studying the Heegaard Floer homology of the preimage of a knot K in S^3 inside its double branched cover, we develop simple obstructions to K having finite order in the classical smooth concordance group. As an application, we prove that…
Conjecturally, a knot in the 3-sphere has only finitely many non-integer non-characterizing slopes. We verify this conjecture for all knots with knot Floer homology satisfying certain simplicity conditions. The class of knots satisfying our…
Two knots are homology concordant if they are smoothly concordant in a homology cobordism. The group $\hat{\mathcal{C}}_{\mathbb{Z}}$ (resp. $\mathcal{C}_{\mathbb{Z}}$) was previously defined as the set of knots in homology spheres that…
We consider the space of all smooth knots in the 3-sphere isotopic to a given knot, with the aim of finding a small subspace onto which this large space deformation retracts. For torus knots and many hyperbolic knots we show the subspace…
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…
We study locally flat disks in $(\mathbb{C} P^2)^\circ:=(\mathbb{C} P^2)\setminus \mathring{B^4}$ with boundary a fixed knot $K$ and whose complement has fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}$. We show that up to topological isotopy rel. boundary,…