Related papers: Positive braid closures and taut foliations
On a compact oriented surface of genus $g$ with $n\geq 1$ boundary components, $\delta_1, \delta_2,\ldots, \delta_n$, we consider positive factorizations of the boundary multitwist $t_{\delta_1} t_{\delta_2} \cdots t_{\delta_n}$, where…
We show that any homologically non-trivial Dehn twist of a compact surface F with boundary is the lifting of a half-twist in the braid group B_n, with respect to a suitable branched covering p : F -> B^2. In particular, we allow the surface…
This paper studies the existence of co-orientable taut foliations on 3-manifolds, particularly focusing on the Whitehead link exterior. We demonstrate fundamental obstructions to the existence of such foliations with certain Euler class…
Two Dehn surgeries on a knot are called cosmetic if they yield homeomorphic three-manifolds. We show for a certain family of null-homologous knots in any closed orientable three-manifold, if the knot admits cosmetic surgeries with a pair of…
Two Dehn surgeries on a knot are called {\it purely cosmetic}, if they yield manifolds that are homeomorphic as oriented manifolds. Suppose there exist purely cosmetic surgeries on a knot in $S^3$, we show that the two surgery slopes must…
For a large class of 3-manifolds with taut foliations, we construct an action of $\pi_1(M)$ on $\mathbb{R}$ by orientation preserving homeomorphisms which captures the transverse geometry of the leaves. This action is complementary to…
We give a new, conceptually simpler proof of the fact that knots in $S^3$ with positive L-space surgeries are fibered and strongly quasipositive. Our motivation for doing so is that this new proof uses comparatively little Heegaard…
Using the correction terms in Heegaard Floer homology, we prove that if a knot in $S^3$ admits a positive integral $\mathbf{T}$-, $\mathbf{O}$- or $\mathbf{I}$-type surgery, it must have the same knot Floer homology as one of the knots…
We show that any co-orientable foliation of dimension two on a closed orientable $3$-manifold with continuous tangent plane field can be $C^0$-approximated by both positive and negative contact structures unless all the leaves are simply…
The relationships between braid ordering and the geometry of its closure is studied. We prove that if an essential closed surface $F$ in the complements of closed braid has relatively small genus with respect to the Dehornoy floor of the…
If $Y$ is a closed orientable graph manifold, we show that $Y$ admits a coorientable taut foliation if and only if $Y$ is not an L-space. Combined with previous work of Boyer and Clay, this implies that $Y$ is an L-space if and only if…
Let $\Sigma$ be a compact orientable surface with nonempty boundary, let $\varphi: \Sigma \to \Sigma$ be an orientation-preserving pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism, and let $M = \Sigma \times I / \stackrel{\varphi}{\sim}$ be the mapping torus of…
Previous work of the authors establishes a criterion on the fundamental group of a knot complement that determines when Dehn surgery on the knot will have a fundamental group that is not left-orderable. We provide a refinement of this…
We study the Morton-Franks-Williams inequality for closures of simple braids (also known as positive permutation braids). This allows to prove, in a simple way, that the set of simple braids is a orthonormal basis for the inner product of…
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 provide linear lower bounds for the signature of positive braids in terms of the three genus of their braid closure. This yields linear bounds for the topological slice genus of knots that arise as closures of positive braids.
We prove some necessary conditions for a link to be either concordant to a quasi-positive link, quasi-positive, positive, or the closure of a positive braid. The main applications of our results are a characterisation of positive links with…
Many well studied knots can be realized as positive braid knots where the braid word contains a positive full twist; we say that such knots are twist positive. Some important families of knots are twist positive, including torus knots,…
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…
We show that certain negatively twisted torus knots admit Dehn surgeries yielding 3-manifolds with non left-orderable fundamental groups.