Related papers: Achirality of knots and links
We classify all knot diagrams of genus two and three, and give applications to positive, alternating and homogeneous knots, including a classification of achiral genus 2 alternating knots, slice or achiral 2-almost positive knots, a proof…
In this paper we are interested in symmetries of alternating knots, more precisely in those related to achirality. We call the following statement Tait's Conjecture on alternating -achiral knots: Let K be an alternating -achiral knot. Then…
Whitehead doubles provide a plethora of examples of knots that are topologically slice but not smoothly slice. We discuss the problem of the Whitehead double of the Figure 8 knot and survey commonly used techniques to obstructing sliceness.…
This article is devoted to the study of prime alternating +achiral knots. In the case of arborescent knots, we prove in +AAA Visibility Theorem 5.1, that the symmetry is visible on a certain projection (not necessarily minimal) and that it…
It has been conjectured that the algebraic crossing number of a link is uniquely determined in minimal braid representation. This conjecture is true for many classes of knots and links. The Morton-Franks-Williams inequality gives a lower…
We give a simple obstruction for a knot to be amphichiral, in terms of the homology of the 2-fold branched cover. We work with unoriented knots, and so obstruct both positive and negative amphichirality.
A rational knot or link can be put into a standard alternating format which has horizontal and vertical twist sites (double helices). The number and type of these twist sites are determined by terms of next-to-highest $z$-degree in…
We consider homologically essential simple closed curves on Seifert surfaces of genus one knots in $S^3$, and in particular those that are unknotted or slice in $S^3$. We completely characterize all such curves for most twist knots: they…
It has long been known that the quadratic term in the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot is bounded above in terms of the crossing number of the knot. We show that this bound is sharp if and only if the knot is adequate. As an…
We prove that if an alternating knot has unknotting number one, then there exists an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram. This is done by showing that the obstruction to unknotting number one developed by Greene in his work on…
The altenating knots, links and twists projected on the S_2 sphere are identified with the phase Space of a Hamiltonian dynamic system of one degree of freedom. The saddles of the system correspond to the crossing points, the edges, to the…
Frequently, knots are enumerated by their crossing number. However, the number of knots with crossing number $c$ grows exponentially with $c$, and to date computer-assisted proofs can only classify diagrams up to around twenty crossings.…
In this paper we present a sequence of link invariants, defined from twisted Alexander polynomials, and discuss their effectiveness in distinguish knots. In particular, we recast and extend by geometric means a recent result of Silver and…
Knots and links which are closed 3-braids are a very special class. Like 2-bridge knots and links, they are simple enough to admit a complete classification. At the same time they are rich enough to serve as a source of examples on which,…
Using an involved study of the Jones polynomial, we determine, as our main result, the crossing numbers of (prime) amphicheiral knots. As further applications, we show that several classes of links, including semiadequate links and…
The braid indices of most links remain unknown as there is no known universal method that can be used to determine the braid index of an arbitrary knot. This is also the case for alternating knots. In this paper, we show that if $K$ is an…
Although most knots are nonalternating, modern research in knot theory seems to focus on alternating knots. We consider here nonalternating knots and their properties. Specifically, we show certain classes of knots have nontrivial Jones…
A triple crossing is a crossing in a projection of a knot or link that has three strands of the knot passing straight through it. A triple crossing projection is a projection such that all of the crossings are triple crossings. We prove…
We present computational results about quasi-alternating knots and links and odd homology obtained by looking at link families in the Conway notation. More precisely, we list quasi-alternating links up to 12 crossings and the first examples…
Given a diagram $D$ of a knot $K$, we consider the number $c(D)$ of crossings and the number $b(D)$ of overpasses of $D$. We show that, if $D$ is a diagram of a nontrivial knot $K$ whose number $c(D)$ of crossings is minimal, then…