Related papers: Slice depth of 2-knots

The primary objects of study in the ``knot theory of complex plane curves'' are C-links: links (or knots) cut out of a 3-sphere in the complex plane by complex plane transverse and totally tangential. Transverse C-links are naturally…

The algebraic unknotting number u_a(K) of a knot K was introduced by Hitoshi Murakami. It equals the minimal number of crossing changes needed to turn K into an Alexander polynomial one knot. In a previous paper the authors used the…

This paper employs various computational techniques to determine the bridge numbers of both classical and virtual knots. For classical knots, there is no ambiguity of what the bridge number means. For virtual knots, there are multiple…

Given a virtual link diagram $D$, we define its unknotting index $U(D)$ to be minimum among $(m, n)$ tuples, where $m$ stands for the number of crossings virtualized and $n$ stands for the number of classical crossing changes, to obtain a…

We consider the question of when a slice knot admits a reducible Dehn surgery. By analyzing the correction terms associated to such a surgery, we show that slice knots cannot admit surgeries with more than two summands. We also give a…

We study three knot invariants related to smoothly immersed disks in the four-ball. These are the four-ball crossing number, which is the minimal number of normal double points of such a disk bounded by a given knot; the slicing number,…

We classify graphs that are 0, 1, or 2 edges short of being complete partite graphs with respect to intrinsic linking and intrinsic knotting. In addition, we classify intrinsic knotting of graphs on 8 vertices. For graphs in these families,…

In the early 1980's Mike Freedman showed that all knots with trivial Alexander polynomial are topologically slice (with fundamental group Z). This paper contains the first new examples of topologically slice knots. In fact, we give a…

The first and last named authors have demonstrated the existence of knots for which every integral slope is non-characterizing. In this short note, we extend this result in two ways. There exists a knot that shares for every integer n the…

We show that all twist knots, certain double twist knots and some other 2-bridge knots are minimal elements for the partial ordering on the set of prime knots. The key to these results are presentations of their character varieties using…

In this work, we find a closed form formula for the braid index of an $n$-bridge braid, a class of positive braid knots which simultaneously generalizes torus knots, 1-bridge braids, and twisted torus knots. Our proof is elementary,…

In this paper we use continued fractions to study a partial order on the set of 2-bridge knots derived from the work of Ohtsuki, Riley, and Sakuma. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for any set of 2-bridge knots to have an…

We introduce the notion of ascent sliceness of virtual knots. A representative of a virtual knot is an embedding $ S^1 \hookrightarrow \Sigma_{g} \times I $, for $ \Sigma_g $ a closed connected oriented surface of genus $ g $; the virtual…

Call a smooth knot (or smooth link) in the unit sphere in $\mathbb{C}^2$ analytic (respectively, smoothly analytic) if it bounds a complex curve (respectively, a smooth complex curve) in the complex ball. Let $K$ be a smoothly analytic…

This article introduces a new term "splint" and classifies the splints of the classical root systems. The motivation comes from representation theory of semisimple Lie algebras. In a few instances, splints play a role in determining…

The stick number of a knot is the minimum number of segments needed to build a polygonal version of the knot. Despite its elementary definition and relevance to physical knots, the stick number is poorly understood: for most knots we only…

We introduce and study knots and links in 2-dimensional complexes. In particular, we define linking numbers for oriented two-component links in 2-complexes and a Kauffman-type bracket polynomial for links in 2-complexes. We also discuss…

In this paper, we study reducible surgeries on knots in $S^3$. We develop thickness bounds for L-space knots that admit reducible surgeries, and lower bounds on the slice genus for general knots that admit reducible surgeries. The L-space…

In a classic paper Zeeman introduced the k-twist spin of a knot K and showed that the exterior of a twist spin fibers over S^1. In particular this result shows that the knot K # -K is doubly slice. In this paper we give a quick proof of…

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere with 2-fold branched covering space M. If for some prime p congruent to 3 mod 4 the p-torsion in the first homology of M is cyclic with odd exponent, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…