Related papers: On polynomials and surfaces of variously positive …

We give a geometric proof of the following result of Juhasz. \emph{Let $a_g$ be the leading coefficient of the Alexander polynomial of an alternating knot $K$. If $|a_g|<4$ then $K$ has a unique minimal genus Seifert surface.} In doing so,…

We provide a new bound on the maximum degree of the Jones polynomial of a positive link with second Jones coefficient equal to $\pm 1$ or $\pm 2$. This builds upon the result of our previous work, in which we found such a bound for positive…

We prove that any link admitting a diagram with a single negative crossing is strongly quasipositive. This answers a question of Stoimenow's in the (strong) positive. As a second main result, we give simple and complete characterizations of…

Roberts proved that a family of alternating, arborescent, prime knots each have at least $2^{2n-1}$ distinct minimal genus Seifert surfaces, where $n$ is the genus of the knot in question. We give a subfamily of these knots that have…

We show that 3-braid links with given (non-zero) Alexander or Jones polynomial are finitely many, and can be effectively determined. We classify among closed 3-braids strongly quasipositive and fibered ones, and show that 3-braid links have…

As an extension of positive and almost positive diagrams and links, we study two classes of links we call successively almost positive and weakly successively almost positive links. We prove various properties of polynomial invariants and…

We give examples of knots with some unusual properties of the crossing number of positive diagrams or strand number of positive braid representations. In particular we show that positive braid knots may not have positive minimal (strand…

A link is almost alternating if it is non-alternating and has a diagram that can be transformed into an alternating diagram via one crossing change. We give formulas for the first two and last two potential coefficients of the Jones…

The coefficients of twisted Alexander polynomials of a knot induce regular functions of the $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety. We prove that the function of the highest degree has a finite value at an ideal point which gives a minimal…

We give a new upper bound on the maximum degree of the Jones polynomial of a fibered positive link. In particular, we prove that the maximum degree of the Jones polynomial of a fibered positive knot is at most four times the minimum degree.…

We classify all knot diagrams of genus two and three, and give applications to positive, alternating and homogeneous knots, including a classification of achiral genus 2 alternating knots, slice or achiral 2-almost positive knots, a proof…

This monograph derives direct and concrete relations between colored Jones polynomials and the topology of incompressible spanning surfaces in knot and link complements. Under mild diagrammatic hypotheses that arise naturally in the study…

We provide a bound on the maximum degree of the Jones polynomial of any positive link with second Jones coefficient equal to $\pm 1$. This builds on the result of our previous work, in which we found such a bound for positive fibered links.

Let S(D) be the surface produced by applying Seifert's algorithm to the oriented link diagram D. I prove that if D has no negative crossings then S(D) is a quasipositive Seifert surface, that is, S(D) embeds incompressibly on a fiber…

We use the 2-loop term of the Kontsevich integral to show that there are (many) knots with trivial Alexander polynomial which don't have a Seifert surface whose genus equals the rank of the Seifert form. This is one of the first…

Using the recent Gauss diagram formulas for Vassiliev invariants of Polyak-Viro-Fiedler and combining these formulas with the Bennequin inequality, we prove several inequalities for positive knots relating their Vassiliev invariants, genus…

We study near-alternating links whose diagrams satisfy conditions generalized from the notion of semi-adequate links. We extend many of the results known for adequate knots relating their colored Jones polynomials to the topology of…

A partial order on the set of prime knots can be defined by the existence of an epimorphism between knot groups. We prove that all the prime knots with up to $6$ crossings are minimal. We also show that each fibered knot with the…

Using an involved study of the Jones polynomial, we determine, as our main result, the crossing numbers of (prime) amphicheiral knots. As further applications, we show that several classes of links, including semiadequate links and…

Let K be a knot in S^3 of genus g and let n>0. We show that if rk HFK(K,g) < 2^{n+1} (where HFK denotes knot Floer homology), in particular if K is an alternating knot such that the leading coefficient a_g of its Alexander polynomial…