Related papers: Simply slicing knots
Suppose F is a compact orientable surface, K is a knot in F x I, and N is the 3-manifold obtained by some non-trivial surgery on K. If F x {0} compresses in N, then there is an annulus in F x I with one end K and the other end an essential…
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…
We give a necessary, and in some cases sufficient, condition for sliceness inside the family of pretzel knots $P (p_1,...,p_n)$ with one $p_i$ even. The three stranded case yields two interesting families of examples: the first consists of…
Hempel has shown that the fundamental groups of knot complements are residually finite. This implies that every nontrivial knot must have a finite-sheeted, noncyclic cover. We give an explicit bound, $\Phi (c)$, such that if $K$ is a…
We construct an infinite family of smoothly slice knots that we prove are topologically doubly slice. Using the correction terms coming from Heegaard Floer homology, we show that none of these knots is smoothly doubly slice. We use these…
We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a closed smooth 6-manifold N to be diffeomorphic to a product of a surface F and a simply connected 4-manifold M in terms of basic invariants like the fundamental group and cohomological data.…
We introduce bridge trisections of knotted surfaces in the four-sphere. This description is inspired by the work of Gay and Kirby on trisections of four-manifolds and extends the classical concept of bridge splittings of links in the…
We show that the commutator subgroup G' of a classical knot group G need not have subgroups of every finite index, but it will if G' has a surjective homomorphism to the integers and we give an exact criterion for that to happen. We also…
We show the existence of infinitely many knot exteriors where each of which contains meridional essential surfaces of any genus and (even) number of boundary components. That is, the compact surfaces that have a meridional essential…
We consider homologically essential simple closed curves on Seifert surfaces of genus one knots in $S^3$, and in particular those that are unknotted or slice in $S^3$. We completely characterize all such curves for most twist knots: they…
In $1961$, Mazur constructed a contractible, compact, smooth $4$-manifold with boundary which is not homeomorphic to the standard $4$-ball, using a $0$-handle, a $1$-handle and a $2$-handle. In this paper, for any integer $n\geq2,$ we…
The purpose of this note is to show that classical cobordism arguments, which go back to the pioneering works of Mandelbaum and Moishezon, provide quick and unified proofs of any knot surgered compact simply-connected 4-manifold X_K…
Suppose M is a closed irreducible orientable 3-manifold, K is a knot in M, P and Q are bridge surfaces for K and K is not removable with respect to Q. We show that either Q is equivalent to P or $d(K,P) \leq 2-\chi(Q-K)$. If K is not a two…
Knots and links in 3-manifolds are studied by applying intersection invariants to singular concordances. The resulting link invariants generalize the Arf invariant, the mod 2 Sato-Levine invariants, and Milnor's triple linking numbers.…
We introduce and study the notion of equivariant $\mathbb{Q}$-sliceness for strongly invertible knots. On the constructive side, we prove that every Klein amphichiral knot, which is a strongly invertible knot admitting a compatible negative…
In this paper we show that there are two symplectic surfaces in the 4-ball which bound the same transverse knot, have the same topology (as abstract surfaces), and are distinguished by the fundamental groups of their complements.
Strongly-cyclic branched coverings of knots are studied by using their (g,1)-decompositions. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of such coverings are obtained. It is also shown that their fundamental groups…
We give some remarks on two closely related issues as stated in the title. In particular we show that a Montesinos knot is SU(2)-simple if and only if it is a 2-bridge knot, extending a result of Zentner for 3-tangle summand pretzel knots.…
There are two main approaches to building locally flat embedded surfaces in 4-manifolds: direct methods which geometrically manipulate a given map of a surface, and more indirect methods using surgery theory. Both rely on Freedman-Quinn's…
We give a necessary and suffcient condition for almost-flat manifolds with cyclic holonomy to admit a Spin structure. Using this condition we find all 4-dimensional orientable almost- flat manifolds with cyclic holonomy that do not admit a…