Related papers: The search for alternating surgeries
We study knots in $S^3$ with infinitely many $SU(2)$-cyclic surgeries, which are Dehn surgeries such that every representation of the resulting fundamental group into $SU(2)$ has cyclic image. We show that for every such nontrivial knot…
Suppose that a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$ admits a finite surgery, Boyer and Zhang proved that the surgery slope must be either integral or half-integral, and they conjectured that the latter case does not happen. Using the correction terms…
We construct infinite families of chirally cosmetic surgeries on chiral hyperbolic knots and purely cosmetic surgeries on hyperbolic manifolds with multiple cusps, disproving conjectures that these phenomena do not appear, including Problem…
We provide an upper bound on the Cheeger constant and first eigenvalue of the Laplacian of a finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold M, in terms of data from any surgery diagram for M. This has several consequences. We prove that a family of…
The cosmetic crossing conjecture (also known as the "nugatory crossing conjecture") asserts that the only crossing changes that preserve the oriented isotopy class of a knot in the 3-sphere are nugatory. We use the Dehn surgery…
A slope $p/q$ is characterising for a knot $K \subset \mathbb{S}^3$ if the orientation-preserving homeomorphism type of the manifold $\mathbb{S}^3_K(p/q)$ obtained by performing Dehn surgery of slope $p/q$ along $K$ uniquely determines the…
This paper discusses some geometric ideas associated with knots in real projective 3-space $\mathbb{R}P^3$. These ideas are borrowed from classical knot theory. Since knots in $\mathbb{R}P^3$ are classified into three disjoint classes, -…
In an earlier paper, we used the absolute grading on Heegaard Floer homology to give restrictions on knots in $S^3$ which admit lens space surgeries. The aim of the present article is to exhibit stronger restrictions on such knots, arising…
A celebrated theorem of Kirby identifies the set of closed oriented connected 3-manifolds with the set of framed links in $S^3$ modulo two moves. We give a similar description for the set of knots (and more generally, boundary links) in…
A classification of spanning surfaces for alternating links is provided up to genus, orientability, and a new invariant that we call aggregate slope. That is, given an alternating link, we determine all possible combinations of genus,…
Closed 3-string braids admit many bandings to two-bridge links. By way of the Montesinos Trick, this allows us to construct infinite families of knots in the connected sum of lens spaces L(r,1) # L(s,1) that admit a surgery to a lens space…
This paper concerns the truly or purely cosmetic surgery conjecture. We give a survey on exceptional surgeries and cosmetic surgeries. We prove that the slope of an exceptional truly cosmetic surgery on a hyperbolic knot in $S^3$ must be…
Two Dehn surgeries on a knot are called {\it purely cosmetic}, if they yield manifolds that are homeomorphic as oriented manifolds. Suppose there exist purely cosmetic surgeries on a knot in $S^3$, we show that the two surgery slopes must…
A slope $p/q \in \mathbb{Q}$ is characterising for a knot $K \subset \mathbb{S}^3$ if the oriented homeomorphism type of the manifold $\mathbb{S}^3_K(p/q)$ obtained by Dehn surgery of slope $p/q$ on $K$ uniquely determines the knot $K$. We…
We show for an alternating knot the minimal boundary slope of an essential spanning surface is given by the signature plus twice the minimum degree of the Jones polynomial and the maximal boundary slope of an essential spanning surface is…
If a knot $K$ in $S^3$ admits a pair of truly cosmetic surgeries, we show that the surgery slopes are either $\pm 2$ or $\pm 1/q$ for some value of $q$ that is explicitly determined by the knot Floer homology of $K$. Moreover, in the former…
A slope $p/q$ is a characterising slope for a knot $K$ in $S^3$ if the oriented homeomorphism type of $p/q$-surgery on $K$ determines $K$ uniquely. We show that when $K$ is a hyperbolic knot its set of characterising slopes contains all but…
We use the LMO invariant to find constraints for a knot to admit a purely or reflectively cosmetic surgery. We also get a constraint for knots to admit a Lens space surgery, and some information for characterizing slopes.
Concerning the set of exceptional surgery slopes for a hyperbolic knot, Lackenby and Meyerhoff proved that the maximal cardinality is 10 and the maximal diameter is 8. Their proof is computer-aided in part, and both bounds are achieved…
A slope $p/q$ is said to be characterizing for a knot $K$ if the homeomorphism type of the $p/q$-Dehn surgery along $K$ determines the knot up to isotopy. Extending previous work of Lackenby and McCoy on hyperbolic and torus knots…