Related papers: Topological minimal genus and $L^2$-signatures
The slicing number of a knot, $u_s(K)$, is the minimum number of crossing changes required to convert $K$ to a slice knot. This invariant is bounded above by the unknotting number and below by the slice genus $g_s(K)$. We show that for many…
We give infinitely many examples of 2-bridge knots for which the topological and smooth slice genera differ. The smallest of these is the 12-crossing knot $12a255$. These also provide the first known examples of alternating knots for which…
Every element in the first cohomology group of a 3--manifold is dual to embedded surfaces. The Thurston norm measures the minimal `complexity' of such surfaces. For instance the Thurston norm of a knot complement determines the genus of the…
An estimate for the genus function in circle bundles over irreducible 3-manifolds is proven. This estimate is in many cases an equality and it relates the minimal genus of the surfaces representing a given homology class with the…
Kronheimer and Mrowka asked whether the difference between the four-dimensional clasp number and the slice genus can be arbitrarily large. This question is answered affirmatively by studying a knot invariant derived from equivariant…
We obtain a solution to a bordism version of Gromov's linearity problem over a large family of acyclic groups, for manifolds with arbitrary dimension. Every group embeds into some acyclic group in this family. Thus, the linear bordism…
We generalize the following result of White: Suppose $N$ is a compact, strictly convex domain in $\RR^3$ with smooth boundary. Let $\Sigma$ be a compact 2-manifold with boundary. Then a generic smooth curve $\Gamma\cong \partial\Sigma$ in…
We obtain new invariants of topological link concordance and homology cobordism of 3-manifolds from Hirzebruch-type intersection form defects of towers of iterated p-covers. Our invariants can extract geometric information from an arbitrary…
We introduce a refinement of Bar-Natan homology for involutive links, extending the work of Lobb-Watson and Sano. We construct a new suite of numerical invariants and derive bounds for the genus of equivariant cobordisms between strongly…
Given a one-dimensional homology class in a lens space, a question related to the Berge conjecture on lens space surgeries is to determine all knots realizing the minimal rational genus of all knots in this homology class. It is known that…
The nonorientable 4-genus is an invariant of knots which has been studied by many authors, including Gilmer and Livingston, Batson, and Ozsv\'{a}th, Stipsicz, and Szab\'{o}. Given a nonorientable surface $F \subset B^4$ with $\partial F =…
Using the theory of perverse sheaves of vanishing cycles, we define a homological invariant of knots in three-manifolds, similar to the three-manifold invariant constructed by Abouzaid and the second author. We use spaces of SL(2,C) flat…
We define Casson-Gordon sigma-invariants for links and give a lower bound of the slice genus of a link in terms of these invariants. We study as an example a family of two component links of genus h and show that their slice genus is h,…
We study the sutured Floer homology invariants of the sutured manifold obtained by cutting a knot complement along a Seifert surface, R. We show that these invariants are finer than the "top term" of the knot Floer homology, which they…
Ozsv\'ath and Szab\'o used the knot filtration on $\widehat{CF}(S^3)$ to define the $\tau$-invariant for knots in the 3-sphere. In this article, we generalize their construction and define a collection of $\tau$-invariants associated to a…
We study locally flat, compact, oriented surfaces in $4$-manifolds whose exteriors have infinite cyclic fundamental group. We give algebraic topological criteria for two such surfaces, with the same genus $g$, to be related by an ambient…
We study surface representatives of homology classes of finite complexes which minimize certain complexity measures, including its genus and Euler characteristic. Our main result is that up to surgery at nullhomotopic curves minimizers are…
We continue the study of the genus of knot diagrams, deriving a new description of generators using Hirasawa's algorithm. This description leads to good estimates on the maximal number of crossings of generators and allows us to complete…
We use Lee's work on the Khovanov homology to define a knot invariant s. We show that s(K) is a concordance invariant and that it provides a lower bound for the slice genus of K. As a corollary, we give a purely combinatorial proof of the…
We present new lower bounds on the complexity of Dehn surgery manifolds of knots, using our recent result on the Cheeger-Gromov rho invariants and triangulations. As an application, we give explicit examples of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds…