Related papers: Lens spaces, rational balls and the ribbon conject…
We study two homomorphisms to the rational homology sphere group. If $\psi$ denotes the inclusion homomorphism from the integral homology sphere group, then using work of Lisca we show that the image of $\psi$ intersects trivially with the…
To a smooth, compact, oriented, properly-embedded surface in the $4$-ball, we define an invariant of its boundary-preserving isotopy class from the Khovanov homology of its boundary link. Previous work showed that when the boundary link is…
It is conjectured since long that for any convex body $K \in \mathbb{R}^n$ there exists a point in the interior of $K$ which belongs to at least $2n$ normals from different points on the boundary of $K$. The conjecture is known to be true…
In this paper, we study a special family of $(1,1)$ knots called constrained knots, which includes 2-bridge knots in the 3-sphere $S^3$ and simple knots in lens spaces. Constrained knots are parameterized by five integers and characterized…
The illumination conjecture is a classical open problem in convex and discrete geometry, asserting that every compact convex body~$K$ in $\mathbb R^n$ can be illuminated by a set of no more than $2^n$ points. If $K$ has smooth boundary, it…
The rational homology balls $B_n$ appeared in Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down construction [FS] and were subsequently used (e.g. Fintushel-Stern[FS4], Park[Pa2]) to construct exotic smooth manifolds with small Euler numbers. We…
Let $S$ be a rational homology complex projective plane with quotient singularities. The algebraic Montgomery-Yang problem conjectures that the number of singular points of $S$ is at most three if its smooth locus is simply-connected. In…
Given a closed four-manifold $X$ with an indefinite intersection form, we consider smoothly embedded surfaces in $X \setminus $int$(B^4)$, with boundary a knot $K \subset S^3$. We give several methods to bound the genus of such surfaces in…
The Cabling Conjecture states that surgery on hyperbolic knots in $S^3$ never produces reducible manifolds. In contrast, there do exist hyperbolic knots in some lens spaces with non-prime surgeries. Baker constructed a family of such…
We show that in complete metric spaces, $4$-hyperconvexity is equivalent to finite hyperconvexity. Moreover, every complete, almost $n$-hyperconvex metric space is $n$-hyperconvex. This generalizes among others results of Lindenstrauss and…
Let p and q be distinct integers greater than one. We show that the 2-component pretzel link P(p,q,-p,-q) is not slice, even though it has a ribbon mutant, by using 3-fold branched covers and an obstruction based on Donaldson's…
We show that a rational normal scroll can in general be set-theoretically defined by a proper subset of the 2-minors of the associated two-row matrix. This allows us to find a class of rational normal scrolls that are almost set-theoretic…
This paper gives two new combinatorial topological proofs of the classification of rational tangles. Each proof rests on an elegant lemma showing that rational tangles are isotopic to canonical alternating rational tangles. The first proof…
We show that every smooth closed oriented four-manifold admits a decomposition into two co- dimension zero submanifolds with common boundary. Each of these submanifolds carries a structure of a symplectic manifold with pseudo-convex…
Gray-Vanhecke conjectured that the volumes of small geodesic balls could determine if the manifold is a space form, and provided a proof for the compact 4-dimensional manifold, and some cases. In this paper, similar results for the…
We define 2-decompositions of ribbon graphs, which generalise 2-sums and tensor products of graphs. We give formulae for the Bollobas-Riordan polynomial of such a 2-decomposition, and derive the classical Brylawski formula for the Tutte…
In the present paper a criteria for a rectangular diagram to admit a simplification is given in terms of Legendrian knots. It is shown that there are two types of simplifications which are mutually independent in a sense. A new proof of the…
A recent attempt to extend the geometric Langlands duality to affine Kac-Moody groups, has led Braverman and Finkelberg [arXiv:0711.2083] to conjecture a mathematical relation between the intersection cohomology of the moduli space of…
A ribbon is a two-dimensional object with one-dimensional properties which is related with geometry, robotics and molecular biology. A folded ribbon structure provides a complex structure through a series of folds. We focus on a folded…
The cosmetic crossing conjecture (also known as the "nugatory crossing conjecture") asserts that the only crossing changes that preserve the oriented isotopy class of a knot in the 3-sphere are nugatory. We use the Dehn surgery…