Related papers: Invertible knot concordances and prime knots
We use classical techniques to answer some questions raised by Daniele Celoria about almost-concordance of knots in arbitrary closed $3$-manifolds. We first prove that, given $Y^3 \neq S^3$, for any non-trivial element $g\in \pi_1(Y)$ there…
Given a crossing in a planar diagram of a link in the three-sphere, we show that the knot Floer homologies of the link and its two resolutions at that crossing are related by an exact triangle. As a consequence, we deduce that for any…
We show that a knot in $S^3$ with an infinite number of distinct incompressible Seifert surfaces contains a closed incompressible surface in its complement.
Let G be a graph in a 3-manifold M. We compress the pair (M,G) along admissible 2-spheres as long as possible. What we get is a root of (M,G). Our main result is that for any pair (M,G) the root exists and is unique. As a corollary we get…
We define a notion of concordance based on Euler characteristic, and show that it gives rise to a concordance group of links in the three-sphere, which has the concordance group of knots as a direct summand with infinitely generated…
Finite-order invariants of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds (including non-orientable ones) are constructed and studied by methods of the topology of discriminant sets. Obstructions to the integrability of admissible weight systems to…
We prove some classification results for tight contact structure in the 3-space, -ball and -sphere that are invariant with respect to some arbitrary involution, that is conjugated to the standard rotation around the x-axis. Unlike the…
We develop purely algebraic methods for proving that a knot is prime. Our approach uses the Heegaard Floer polynomial in conjunction with classical knot-theoretic methods: cyclic, dihedral, and metacyclic covering spaces. The theory of…
The first and third authors recently proved that for each knot $K\subset S^3$ there are only finitely many hyperbolic fibered knots which are ribbon concordant to $K$. In this paper, we remove the hyperbolic constraint, proving that every…
We consider the question of when a rational homology 3-sphere is rational homology cobordant to a connected sum of lens spaces. We prove that every rational homology cobordism class in the subgroup generated by lens spaces is represented by…
For a knot in the 3-sphere, the Upsilon invariant is a piecewise linear function defined on the interval [0,2]. For an L-space knot, the Upsilon invariant is determined only by the Alexander polynomial of the knot. We exhibit infinitely…
By studying the Heegaard Floer homology of the preimage of a knot K in S^3 inside its double branched cover, we develop simple obstructions to K having finite order in the classical smooth concordance group. As an application, we prove that…
We give the first examples of a pair of knots $K_1$,$K_2$ in the 3-sphere for which their unknotting numbers satisfy $u(K_1\#K_2)<u(K_1)+u(K_2)$ . This answers question 1.69(B) from Kirby's problem list, "Problems in low-dimensional…
For a prime knot group, the classifying space for the family of the subgroups generated by the meridians can be seen as an abstract analogue of the ambient manifold in which the knot lives. An explicit model of this ambient classifying…
We prove that any isomorphism between the profinite completions of the fundamental groups of two cusped finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds is regular and peripheral regular. As an application, we show that the $A$-polynomial of prime…
Ozsv\'ath and Szab\'o conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred knots in $S^3$. We will prove this conjecture for null-homologous knots in arbitrary closed 3--manifolds. Namely, if $K$ is a knot in a closed 3--manifold $Y$, $Y-K$…
In this paper, we construct infinitely many non-isotopic 3-knots in the 5-sphere, each of which has four critical points with respect to the standard height function of the 5-sphere. This contrasts with a theorem of Scharlemann which says…
To each unit complex number with positive imaginary part there is defined a Tristram-Levine knot signature function. The set of all such signature functions is linearly independent as a set of functions defined on the set of all knots. The…
A $k$-twist spun knot is an $n+1$-dimensional knot in the $n+3$-dimensional sphere which is obtained from an $n$-dimensional knot in the $n+2$-dimensional sphere by applying an operation called a $k$-twist-spinning. This construction was…
A crucial step in the surgery-theoretic program to classify smooth manifolds is that of representing a middle--dimensional homology class by a smoothly embedded sphere. This step fails even for the simple 4-manifolds obtained from the…