Related papers: Splitting the concordance group of algebraically s…
We construct an infinite family of topologically slice 2--component boundary links $\ell_i$, none of which is smoothly concordant to a split link, such that $g_4(\ell_i)=i$.
We find a formula for the L2 signature of a (p,q) torus knot, which is the integral of the omega-signatures over the unit circle. We then apply this to a theorem of Cochran-Orr-Teichner to prove that the n-twisted doubles of the unknot, for…
In knot concordance three genera arise naturally, g(K), g_4(K), and g_c(K): these are the classical genus, the 4-ball genus, and the concordance genus, defined to be the minimum genus among all knots concordant to K. Clearly 0 <= g_4(K) <=…
This is survey about the classical knot concordance group, prepared for an upcoming handbook of knot theory. Topics include: the basic definitions of concordance; the theory of algebraic concordance as developed by Levine; the theory of…
We consider the space of all representations of the commutator subgroup of a knot group into a finite abelian group {\Sigma}, together with a shift map {\sigma}_x. This is a finite dynamical system, introduced by D.Silver and S. Williams.…
The authors conjectured previously that a knot is nonfibered if and only if its infinite cyclic cover has uncountably many finite covers. We prove the conjecture for a class of knots that includes all knots of genus 1, using techniques from…
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…
This paper contains the results of efforts to determine values of the smooth and the topological slice genus of 11- and 12-crossing knots. Upper bounds for these genera were produced by using a computer to search for genus one concordances…
Given a real, symmetric matrix S, we define the slice through S as being the connected component containing S of two orbits under conjugation: the first by the orthogonal group, and the second by the upper triangular group. We describe some…
The structure of classical non-linear $\cw$ algebras closing on rational functions is analyzed both for the ordinary and the supersymmetric case. Such algebras appear as a result of a coset construction. Their relevance to physical…
We study the classification of slice disks of knots up to isotopy and diffeomorphism using an invariant in knot Floer homology. We compute the invariant of a slice disk obtained by deform-spinning, and show that it can be effectively used…
We show that for many classical knots one can find generalized torsion in the fundamental group of its complement, commonly called the knot group. It follows that such a group is not bi-orderable. Examples include all torus knots, the…
We use the famous knot-theoretic consequence of Freedman's disc theorem---knots with trivial Alexander polynomial bound a locally-flat disc in the 4-ball---to prove the following generalization. The degree of the Alexander polynomial of a…
We give a direct combinatorial proof that the product of two descent classes in a symmetric group is a sum of descent classes. The proof is based on the fact that the group product gives a covering map when descent classes are endowed with…
If a knot K has Seifert matrix V_K and has a prime power cyclic branched cover that is not a homology sphere, then there is an infinite family of non-concordant knots having Seifert matrix V_K.
The cone of a classical group $G$ is an affine $G\times G$-variety. The aim of this note is to initiate its combinatorial study in the cases when $G$ is the complex orthogonal or symplectic group. The coordinate ring of the cone of $G$ is a…
We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group…
We study the eta-invariants of links and show that in many cases they form link concordance invariants, in particular that many eta-invariants vanish for slice links. This result contains and generalizes previous invariants by Smolinsky and…
We extend the equality-type results of Ito--Takimura and Kindred for the non-orientable genera of alternating knots to the setting of two-component alternating links. We show that, for such links, a unified quantity capturing both…
We give a geometric proof of a well known theorem that describes splittings of a free group as an amalgamated product or HNN extension over the integers. The argument generalizes to give a similar description of splittings of a virtually…