Related papers: On the determination of knots by their cyclic unbr…

For any integer n > 2, the n-fold cyclic branched cover M of an alternating prime knot K in the 3-sphere determines K, meaning that if K is a knot in the 3-sphere that is not equivalent to K then its n-fold cyclic branched cover cannot be…

We prove that a prime knot K is not determined by its p-fold cyclic branched cover for at most two odd primes p. Moreover, we show that for a given odd prime p, the p-fold cyclic branched cover of a prime knot K is the p-fold cyclic…

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere with 2-fold branched covering space M. If for some prime p congruent to 3 mod 4 the p-torsion in the first homology of M is cyclic with odd exponent, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…

In this paper we investigate the Alexander polynomial of (1,1)-knots, which are knots lying in a 3-manifold with genus one at most, admitting a particular decomposition. More precisely, we study the connections between the Alexander…

We extend the construction of upsilon-type invariants to null-homologous knots in rational homology three-spheres. By considering $m$-fold cyclic branched covers with $m$ a prime power, this extension provides new knot concordance…

For any alternating knot, it is known that the double branched cover of the $3$-sphere branched over the knot is an $L$-space. We show that the three-fold cyclic branched cover is also an $L$-space for any genus one alternating knot.

Kirby and Lickorish showed that every knot in the 3-sphere is concordant to a prime knot, equivalently, every concordance class contains a prime knot. We prove here that their result can be strengthened: Every knot in the 3-sphere is…

We show that the problem of deciding whether a knot in a fixed closed orientable 3-dimensional manifold bounds a surface of genus at most $g$ is in co-NP. This answers a question of Agol, Hass, and Thurston in 2002. Previously, this was…

We discuss an "extrinsic" property of knots in a 3-subspace of the 3-sphere $S^3$ to characterize how the subspace is embedded in $S^3$. Specifically, we show that every knot in a subspace of the 3-sphere is transient if and only if the…

This work identifies a class of moves on knots which translate to $m$-equivalences of the associated $p$-fold branched cyclic covers, for a fixed $m$ and any $p$ (with respect to the Goussarov-Habiro filtration.) These moves are applied to…

We say a knot $k$ in the 3-sphere $\mathbb S^3$ has {\it Property $IE$} if the infinite cyclic cover of the knot exterior embeds into $\mathbb S^3$. Clearly all fibred knots have Property $IE$. There are infinitely many non-fibred knots…

We prove the non-left-orderability of the fundamental group of the $n$-th fold cyclic branched cover of the pretzel knot $P(3,-3,-2k-1)$ for all integers $k$ and $n\ge 1$. These $3$-manifolds are $L$-spaces discovered by Issa and Turner.

We show that the problem of determining whether a knot in the 3-sphere is non-trivial lies in NP. This is a consequence of the following more general result. The problem of determining whether the Thurston norm of a second homology class in…

We prove that if the order of the first homology of the 2-fold branched cover of a knot K in the 3-sphere is given by pm where p is a prime congruent to 3 mod 4 and gcd(p,m) =1, then K is of infinite order in the knot concordance group.…

We consider the problem of deciding whether a polygonal knot in 3-dimensional Euclidean space is unknotted, capable of being continuously deformed without self-intersection so that it lies in a plane. We show that this problem, {\sc…

For some families of two-bridge knots, including double-twist knots with genus at least four, we determine precisely the set of integers $n>1$ such that the fundamental group of the $n$-fold cyclic branched cover of the 3-sphere along these…

We define homotopy-theoretic invariants of knots in prime 3-manifolds. Fix a knot J in a prime 3-manifold M. Call a knot K in M concordant to J if it cobounds a properly embedded annulus with J in MxI, and call K J-characteristic if there…

We prove that all knots with unknotting number at most 21 are smoothly slice in the K3 surface. We also prove a more general statement for 4-manifolds that contain a plumbing tree of spheres. Our strategy is based on a flexible method to…

The trace of $n$-framed surgery on a knot in $S^3$ is a 4-manifold homotopy equivalent to the 2-sphere. We characterise when a generator of the second homotopy group of such a manifold can be realised by a locally flat embedded 2-sphere…

This paper examines the relationship between the knotting of an embedded surface in $\R^3$ and the knotting of its fold curves, formed by the singular set of projection to a plane. The first result shows that every surface, no matter how…