Related papers: Cobordism of disk knots
We study the cobordism of manifolds with boundary, and its applications to codimension 2 embeddings $M^m\subset N^{m+2}$, using the method of the algebraic theory of surgery. The first main result is a splitting theorem for cobordisms of…
We answer a question of Livingston from 1982 by producing Seifert surfaces of the same genus for a knot in $S^3$ that do not become isotopic when their interiors are pushed into $B^4$. In particular, we identify examples where the surfaces…
The classical knot groups are the fundamental groups of the complements of smooth or piecewise-linear (PL) locally-flat knots. For PL knots that are not locally-flat, there is a pair of interesting groups to study: the fundamental group of…
We consider free symmetries on cobordisms between knots. We classify which freely periodic knots bound equivariant surfaces in the 4-ball in terms of corresponding homology classes in lens spaces. A key tool is the homology cobordism…
We give families of knots and links with pairs of Seifert surfaces that are topologically non-isotopic in $D^4$. This generalizes the main example of Hayden-Kim-Miller-Park-Sundberg and the proof is similarly based on the double branched…
With its boundary tracing out a link or knot in 3D, the Seifert surface is a 2D surface of core importance to topological classification. We propose the first-ever experimentally realistic setup where Seifert surfaces emerge as the boundary…
We study locally flat disks in $(\mathbb{C} P^2)^\circ:=(\mathbb{C} P^2)\setminus \mathring{B^4}$ with boundary a fixed knot $K$ and whose complement has fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}$. We show that up to topological isotopy rel. boundary,…
An n-dimensional \mu-component boundary link is a codimension 2 embedding of spheres L=\bigsqcup_{\mu}S^n \subset S^{n+2} such that there exist \mu disjoint oriented embedded (n+1)-manifolds which span the components of L. An F_\mu-link is…
We generalize H. Seifert's algorithm for finding a Seifert surface for a knot or link. The generalization applies to "framed oriented measured lamination links." For knots, a Seifert surface determines a unique framing. In our setting, we…
We exhibit infinitely many ribbon knots, each of which bounds infinitely many pairwise non-isotopic ribbon disks whose exteriors are diffeomorphic. This family provides a positive answer to a stronger version of an old question of Hitt and…
We explain the notion of a grope cobordism between two knots in a 3-manifold. Each grope cobordism has a type that can be described by a rooted unitrivalent tree. By filtering these trees in different ways, we show how the Goussarov-Habiro…
In this paper we study the cobordism of algebraic knots associated with weighted homogeneous polynomials, and in particular Brieskorn polynomials. Under some assumptions we prove that the associated algebraic knots are cobordant if and only…
Let $\widehat{\mathcal{C}}_{\mathbb{Z}}$ denote the group of knots in homology spheres that bound homology balls, modulo smooth concordance in homology cobordisms. Answering a question of Matsumoto, the second author previously showed that…
We provide three 3-dimensional characterizations of the Z-slice genus of a knot, the minimal genus of a locally-flat surface in 4-space cobounding the knot whose complement has cyclic fundamental group: in terms of balanced algebraic…
We develop new algebraic methods refining the Witt group of linking forms and Ranicki's torsion algebraic L-groups into double Witt groups and double L-groups. At each prime ideal of the underlying ring, our double Witt groups capture…
We introduce a relation of cobordism for knots in thickened surfaces and study cobordism invariants of such knots.
We define the Witt coindex of a link with non-trivial Alexander polynomial, as a concordance invariant from the Seifert form. We show that it provides an upper bound for the (locally flat) slice Euler characteristic of the link, extending…
Given a connected cobordism between two knots in the 3-sphere, our main result is an inequality involving torsion orders of the knot Floer homology of the knots, and the number of local maxima and the genus of the cobordism. This has…
In our previous paper, we obtained several results concerning cobordisms of algebraic knots associated with Brieskorn polynomials: for example, under certain conditions, we showed that the exponents are cobordism invariants. In this paper,…
The second author and Powell asked whether there exist knots bounding infinitely many slice disks that remain pairwise nonisotopic, even after local knotting. We answer this question in the affirmative, giving many classes of examples…