Related papers: Brunnian links, claspers and Goussarov-Vassiliev f…
A link L in the 3-sphere is called Brunnian if every proper sublink of L is trivial. In a previous paper, the first author proved that the restriction to Brunnian links of any Goussarov-Vassiliev finite type invariant of (n+1)-component…
We consider surgery moves along (n+1)-component Brunnian links in compact connected oriented 3-manifolds, where the framing of the each component is 1/k for k in Z. We show that no finite type invariant of degree < 2n-2 can detect such a…
The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, we give a short proof using the Kontsevich integral for the fact that the restriction of an invariant of degree 2n to (n+1)-component Brunnian links can be expressed as a quadratic form on the…
If L_1 and L_2 are two Brunnian links with all pairwise linking numbers 0, then we show that L_1 and L_2 are equivalent if and only if they have homeomorphic complements. In particular, this holds for all Brunnian links with at least three…
We introduce the concept of `claspers,' which are surfaces in 3-manifolds with some additional structure on which surgery operations can be performed. Using claspers we define for each positive integer k an equivalence relation on links…
We show that the Casson knot invariant, linking number and Milnor's triple linking number, together with a certain 2-string link invariant $V_2$, are necessary and sufficient to express any string link Vassiliev invariant of order two.…
We prove the existence of a degree 7 Vassiliev invariant of long (or string) two-component links which is not preserved under the simultaneous change of orientation of both components. The non-invertibility of this invariant can be detected…
We give a classification of $n$-component links up to $C_n$-move. In order to prove this classification, we characterize Brunnian links, and have that a Brunnian link is ambient isotopic to a band sum of trivial link and Milnor's links.
The Benard-Conway invariant of links in the 3-sphere is a Casson-Lin type invariant defined by counting irreducible SU(2) representations of the link group with fixed meridional traces. For two-component links with linking number one, the…
We show that for an $n$-component, $n$-bridge link and a positive integer $m$, the following is true: If the longitudes of $L$ lie in the $(m+2)$-th term of the lower central series of the link group then all the finite type invariants of…
We construct the complete invariant for fused links. It is proved that the set of equivalence classes of $n$-component fused links is in one-to-one correspondence with the set of elements of the abelization $UVP_n/UVP_n^{\prime}$ up to…
This paper proves that convex Brunnian links exist for every dimension $n \geq 3$ by constructing explicit examples. These examples are three-component links which are higher-dimensional generalizations of the Borromean rings.
The Vassiliev-Gusarov link invariants of finite type are known to be closely related to perturbation theory for Chern-Simons theory. In order to clarify the perturbative nature of such link invariants, we introduce an algebra V_infinity…
We show that the $2$-component unlink in $S^4$ admits infinitely many isotopy classes of spanning $3$-disks that are Brunnian.
This paper is expository and is accessible to students. We define simple invariants of knots or links (linking number, Arf-Casson invariants and Alexander-Conway polynomials) motivated by interesting results whose statements are accessible…
A link L is called Brunnian if every proper sublink of L is trivial. Similarly, a bottom tangle T is called Brunnian if every proper subtangle of T is trivial. In this paper, we give a small subalgebra of the n-fold completed tensor power…
Let n be a positive integer. We provide a Khovanov homology proof of the following classical fact: If the closure of an n-strand braid is the n-component unlink, then the braid is trivial.
In this paper, we give a complete set of finite type string link invariants of degree <5. In addition to Milnor invariants, these include several string link invariants constructed by evaluating knot invariants on certain closure of…
We introduce a multivariable Casson-Lin type invariant for links in $S^3$. This invariant is defined as a signed count of irreducible $\operatorname{SU}(2)$ representations of the link group with fixed meridional traces. For 2-component…
We prove that Legendrian and transverse links in overtwisted contact structures having overtwisted complements can be classified coarsely by their classical invariants. We further prove that any coarse equivalence class of loose links has…