Related papers: Topological minimal genus and $L^2$-signatures

In a lens space X of order r a knot K representing an element of the fundamental group pi_1 X = Z/rZ of order s <= r contains a connected orientable surface S properly embedded in its exterior X-N(K) such that the boundary of S intersects…

We discuss an infinite class of metabelian Von Neumann rho-invariants. Each one is a homomorphism from the monoid of knots to the real line. In general they are not well defined on the concordance group. Nonetheless, we show that they pass…

We show that the order of torsion homology classes in Bar-Natan deformation of Khovanov homology is a lower bound for the unknotting number. We give examples of knots that this is a better lower bound than |s(K)/2|, where s(K) is the…

We extend the definition of Khovanov-Lee homology to links in connected sums of $S^1 \times S^2$'s, and construct a Rasmussen-type invariant for null-homologous links in these manifolds. For certain links in $S^1 \times S^2$, we compute the…

To a Seifert matrix of a knot K one can associate a matrix w(K) with entries in the rational function field, Q(t). The Murasugi, Milnor, and Levine-Tristram knot signatures, all of which provide bounds on the 4-genus of a knot, are…

We define a new notion of thin position for a graph in a 3-manifold which combines the ideas of thin position for manifolds first originated by Scharlemann and Thompson with the idea of thin position for knots first originated by Gabai.…

Our main result gives an adjunction inequality for embedded surfaces in certain $4$-manifolds with contact boundary under a non-vanishing assumption on the Bauer--Furuta type invariants. Using this, we give infinitely many knots in $S^3$…

In this paper we prove genus bounds for closed embedded minimal surfaces in a closed 3-dimensional manifold constructed via min-max arguments. A stronger estimate was announced by Pitts and Rubistein but to our knowledge its proof has never…

Non-isotopic Heegaard splittings of non-minimal genus were known previously only for very special 3-manifolds. We show in this paper that they are in fact a wide spread phenomenon in 3-manifold theory: We exhibit a large class of knots and…

We study invariant Seifert surfaces for strongly invertible knots, and prove that the gap between the equivariant genus (the minimum of the genera of invariant Seifert surfaces) of a strongly invertible knot and the (usual) genus of the…

We show that a 2-knot group discovered in the course of a census of 4-manifolds with small triangulations is an HNN extension with finite base and proper associated subgroups, and has the smallest base among such knot groups.

In the early 1980's Mike Freedman showed that all knots with trivial Alexander polynomial are topologically slice (with fundamental group Z). This paper contains the first new examples of topologically slice knots. In fact, we give a…

We prove a version of Gromov's compactness theorem for pseudo-holomorphic curves which holds locally in the target symplectic manifold. This result applies to sequences of curves with an unbounded number of free boundary components, and in…

Li-Xie-Zhang classified instanton Floer minimal knots in balanced sutured manifolds subject to a condition on the fundamental group. In this paper, we give a similar classification in the Heegaard Floer homology setting. Since our…

We give a sufficient condition under which vanishing property of Cochran-Orr-Teichner knot concordance obstructions splits under connected sum. The condition is described in terms of self-annihilating submodules with respect to higher-order…

We prove that compact 3-manifolds $M$ of constant curvature +1 with boundary a minimal surface are locally naturally parametrized by the conformal class of the boundary metric $\gamma$ in the Teichmuller space of $\partial M$, when…

We prove the nontriviality, at all integral levels n, of the filtration, F_n, of the classical topological knot concordance group recently defined by the authors and Kent Orr [COT]. Recall that this filtration is significant not only…

We prove that every suitable $4$-manifold with $b_1=0$ and with an embedded Riemann surface of genus $2$ is of simple type. We find a relationship between the basic classes of two of these $4$-manifolds and those of the connected sum along…

This is the first of a series of two technical papers devoted to the analysis of holonomy invariants in strict higher gauge theory with end applications in higher Chern--Simons theory. For a flat 2--connection, we define the 2-holonomy of…

Since the set of volumes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds is well ordered, for each fixed g there is a genus-g surface bundle over the circle of minimal volume. Here, we introduce an explicit family of genus-g bundles which we conjecture are the…