Related papers: Gordian Unlinks
A gordian unlink is a finite number of unknots that are not topologically linked, each with prescribed length and thickness, and that cannot be disentangled into the trivial link by an isotopy preserving length and thickness throughout. In…
We construct a pair of isotopic link configurations that are not thick isotopic while preserving total length.
We describe a construction procedure of infinite sets of $2$-links in closed simply connected 4-manifolds that are topologically isotopic, smoothly inequivalent and componentwise topologically unknotted. These 2-links are the first examples…
Numerical simulations indicate that there exist conformations of the unknot, tied on a finite piece of rope, entangled in such a manner, that they cannot be disentangled to the torus conformation without cutting the rope. The simplest…
We present two practical and widely applicable methods, including some criteria and a general procedure, for detecting Brunnian property of a link, if each component is known to be unknot. The methods are based on observation and handwork.…
We present new techniques to show hyperbolicity of links based on geometric/combinatorial topology. Our techniques are applicable to links that have at least one unknotted component. In particular, they are applicable to Brunnian links. We…
We construct an infinite family of topologically slice 2--component boundary links $\ell_i$, none of which is smoothly concordant to a split link, such that $g_4(\ell_i)=i$.
We construct a graph G such that any embedding of G into R^{3} contains a nonsplit link of two components, where at least one of the components is a nontrivial knot. Further, for any m < n we produce a graph H so that every embedding of H…
If L_1 and L_2 are two Brunnian links with all pairwise linking numbers 0, then we show that L_1 and L_2 are equivalent if and only if they have homeomorphic complements. In particular, this holds for all Brunnian links with at least three…
Theory is developed for linear-quadratic at infinity generating families for Legendrian knots in R^3. It is shown that the unknot with maximal Thurston--Bennequin invariant of -1 has a unique linear-quadratic at infinity generating family,…
We give infinitely many $2$-component links with unknotted components which are topologically concordant to the Hopf link, but not smoothly concordant to any $2$-component link with trivial Alexander polynomial. Our examples are pairwise…
A thick link is a link in $\mathbb{R}^3$ such that each component of the link lies at distance at least $1$ from every other component. Strengthening the notion of thickness, we define a thickly embedded link to be a thick link whose open…
We construct links of arbitrarily many components each component of which is slice and yet are not concordant to any link with even one unknotted component. The only tool we use comes from the Alexander modules.
We reconfigure the Milnor invariant of links in terms of central group extensions and unipotent Magnus embeddings. We also develop a diagrammatic computation of the invariant and compute the first non-vanishing invariants of the Milnor link…
We give new examples of 2-component links with linking number one and unknotted components that are topologically concordant to the positive Hopf link, but not smoothly so - in fact they are not smoothly concordant to the positive Hopf link…
We give a classification of Legendrian torus links. Along the way, we give the first classification of infinite families of Legendrian links where some smooth symmetries of the link cannot be realized by Legendrian isotopies. We also give…
This paper proves that convex Brunnian links exist for every dimension $n \geq 3$ by constructing explicit examples. These examples are three-component links which are higher-dimensional generalizations of the Borromean rings.
In this paper we construct an infinite family of knots with vanishing Upsilon invariant $\Upsilon$, although their secondary Upsilon invariants $\Upsilon^2$ show that they are linearly independent in the smooth knot concordance group. We…
For each integer $n\ge 2$, we construct infinitely many $n$-component Brunnian links of 3-balls in $S^4$. Our main tool is the third author's result on the existence of splitting spheres for the trivial two-component link of $2$-spheres in…
We produce an infinite family of $2$-complexes that are intrinsically linked when embedded into four dimensions. In particular, we show that any embedding into $\mathbb{R}^4$ of the suspension of a graph containing $K_6$ as a minor contains…