Related papers: Non-complex cobordisms between quasipositive knots

We give an infinite family of knots that are not rationally concordant to their reverses. More precisely, if R denotes the involution of the rational knot concordance group QC induced by string reversal and Fix(R) denotes the subgroup of…

We show that the problem of deciding whether a knot in a fixed closed orientable 3-dimensional manifold bounds a surface of genus at most $g$ is in co-NP. This answers a question of Agol, Hass, and Thurston in 2002. Previously, this was…

In the 60's Levine proved that if $R$ is a slice knot, then on any genus $g$ Seifert surface for $R$ there is a $g$ component link $J$, called a derivative of $R$, on which the Seifert form vanishes. Many subsequent obstructions to $R$…

We show that for any given closed orientable 3-manifold M with a Heegaard surface of genus g, any positive integers b and n, there exists a knot K in M which admits a (g,b)-bridge splitting of distance greater than n with respect to the…

The genus non-increasing totally positive unknotting number is the minimum number of crossing changes that transform a knot into the unknot, such that all the crossing changes are positive-to-negative crossing changes that do not increase…

We define a set of "second-order" L^(2)-signature invariants for any algebraically slice knot. These obstruct a knot's being a slice knot and generalize Casson-Gordon invariants, which we consider to be "first-order signatures". As one…

Fix a knot $K_0$ in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and consider a Lagrangian submanifold $L$ of $T^*\mathbb{R}^3$ that is isotopic to the conormal bundle of $K_0$ by a compactly supported Hamiltonian isotopy and intersects the zero section $\mathbb{R}^3$…

We study 4-dimensional homology cobordisms without 3-handles, showing that they interact nicely with Thurston geometries, character varieties, and instanton and Heegaard Floer homologies. Using these, we derive obstructions to such…

We construct a hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ (with $\partial M$ totally geodesic) which contains no essential closed surfaces, but for any even integer $g> 0$ there are infinitely many separating slopes $r$ on $\partial M$ so that $M[r]$, the…

By considering negative surgeries on a knot $K$ in $S^3$, we derive a lower bound to the non-orientable slice genus $\gamma_4(K)$ in terms of the signature $\sigma(K)$ and the concordance invariants $V_i(\overline{K})$, which strengthens a…

We prove that the degree of the Brandt-Lickorish-Millet polynomial of any quasi-alternating link is less than its determinant. Therefore, we obtain a new and a simple obstruction criterion for quasi-alternateness. As an application, we…

Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…

We define a coalgebra structure for open strings transverse to any framed codimension 2 submanifold. When the submanifold is a knot in R^3, we show this structure recovers a specialization of the Ng cord algebra, a non-trivial knot…

Positive permutation braids on n strings, which are defined to be positive n-braids where each pair of strings crosses at most once, form the elementary but non-trivial building blocks in many studies of conjugacy in the braid groups. We…

We show that for the pretzel knots $K_k=P(3,-3,-2k-1)$, the $n$-fold cyclic branched covers are L-spaces for all $n\geq 1$. In addition, we show that the knots $K_k$ with $k\geq 1$ are quasipositive and slice, answering a question of…

We investigate the nonorientable 4-genus $\gamma_4$ of a special family of 2-bridge knots, the twist knots and double twist knots $C(m,n)$. Because the nonorientable 4-genus is bounded by the nonorientable 3-genus, it is known that…

Using the Fiedler-Polyak-Viro Gauss diagram formulas we study the Vassiliev invariants of degree 2 and 3 on almost positive knots. As a consequence we show that the number of almost positive knots of given genus or unknotting number grows…

Freedman and Krushkal showed that if the surgery conjecture and the $s$-cobordism conjecture hold for all topological 4-manifolds, then every link with pairwise zero linking numbers is topologically round handle slice. Kim, Powell, and…

We show that the link cobordism maps defined by the author are graded and satisfy a grading change formula. Using the grading change formula, we prove a new bound for $\Upsilon_K(t)$ for knot cobordisms in negative definite 4-manifolds. As…

We show that one can find two nonisomorphic curves over a field K that become isomorphic to one another over two finite extensions of K whose degrees over K are coprime to one another. More specifically, let K_0 be an arbitrary prime field…