Related papers: Flat connections at infinity on knot surgery manif…
Some generalizations and variations of the Fintushel-Stern rim surgery are known to produce smoothly knotted surfaces. We show that if the fundamental groups of their complements are cyclic, then these surfaces are topologically unknotted.…
In this note, we affirm the partial answer to the long open Conjecture which states that any closed embeddable strictly pseudoconvex CR $3$-manifold admits a contact form $\theta $ with the vanishing CR $Q$-curvature. More precisely, we…
Two of the basic questions in contact topology are which manifolds admit tight contact structures, and on those that do, can we classify such structures. We present the first such classification on an infinite family of (mostly) hyperbolic…
We reconsider Chern-Simons gauge theory on a Seifert manifold M (the total space of a nontrivial circle bundle over a Riemann surface). When M is a Seifert manifold, Lawrence and Rozansky have shown from the exact solution of Chern-Simons…
Recent work on the loop representation of quantum gravity has revealed previously unsuspected connections between knot theory and quantum gravity, or more generally, 3-dimensional topology and 4-dimensional generally covariant physics. We…
We establish a criterion that ensures a bounded almost complex curve in a bounded almost complex 4-manifold minimizes genus amongst all smooth surfaces that share its homology class and the transverse link on its boundary. An immediate…
We formulate a refinement of SU(N) Chern-Simons theory on a three-manifold via the refined topological string and the (2,0) theory on N M5 branes. The refined Chern-Simons theory is defined on any three-manifold with a semi-free circle…
We explore extensions to $\operatorname{SL}(n,\mathbb{C})$-Chern-Simons theory of some results obtained for $\operatorname{SU}(n)$-Chern-Simons theory via the asymptotic properties of the Hitchin connection and its relation to Toeplitz…
We study finite type invariants of nullhomologous knots in a closed 3-manifold $M$ defined in terms of certain descending filtration $\{\mathscr{K}_n(M)\}_{n\geq 0}$ of the vector space $\mathscr{K}(M)$ spanned by isotopy classes of…
We consider Wilson loop observables for Chern-Simons theory at large N and its topological string dual and extend the previous checks for this duality to the case of links. We find an interesting structure involving representation/spin…
We calculate a large $k$ asymptotic expansion of the exact surgery formula for Witten's $SU(2)$ invariant of Seifert manifolds. The contributions of all flat connections are identified. An agreement with the 1-loop formula is checked. A…
The Kauffman bracket skein module $K(M)$ of a $3$-manifold $M$ is the quotient of the $\mathbb{Q}(A)$-vector space spanned by isotopy classes of links in $M$ by the Kauffman relations. A conjecture of Witten states that if $M$ is closed…
We produce the first examples of closed, tight contact 3-manifolds which become overtwisted after performing admissible transverse surgeries. Along the way, we clarify the relationship between admissible transverse surgery and Legendrian…
We introduce new topological quantum invariants of compact oriented 3-manifolds with boundary where the boundary is a disjoint union of two identical surfaces. The invariants are constructed via surgery on manifolds of the form $F \times I$…
We consider surgery moves along (n+1)-component Brunnian links in compact connected oriented 3-manifolds, where the framing of the each component is 1/k for k in Z. We show that no finite type invariant of degree < 2n-2 can detect such a…
We consider the question of when is the closed manifold obtained by elementary surgery on an $n$-knot Seifert fibred over a 2-orbifold. After some observations on the classical case, we concentrate on the cases n=2 and 3. We have found a…
Let $K$ be a knot in an L-space $Y$ with a Dehn surgery to a surface bundle over $S^1$. We prove that $K$ is rationally fibered, that is, the knot complement admits a fibration over $S^1$. As part of the proof, we show that if $K\subset Y$…
We derive the large k asymptotics of the surgery formula for SU(2) Witten's invariants of general Seifert manifolds. The contributions of connected components of the moduli space of flat connections are identified. The contributions of…
We consider irreducible 3-manifolds M that arise as knot complements in closed 3-manifolds and that contain at most two connected strict essential surfaces. The results in the paper relate the boundary slopes of the two surfaces to their…
We reconsider Chern-Simons gauge theory on a Seifert manifold M, which is the total space of a nontrivial circle bundle over a Riemann surface, possibly with orbifold points. As shown in previous work with Witten, the path integral…