Related papers: Knots and links without parallel tangents

We prove that for three-manifolds satisfying a certain algebraic condition on their fundamental group, null-homotopic knots are determined by their complements. This answers a Kirby Problem posed by Boileau for this special case of…

Any knot in $S^3$ may be reduced to a slice knot by crossing changes. Indeed, this slice knot can be taken to be the unknot. In this paper we study the question of when the same holds for knots in homology spheres. We show that a knot in a…

We prove that a Jordan $\calc^1$-curve in the plane contains any non-flat triangle up to translation and homothety with positive ratio. This is false if the curve is not $C^1$. The proof uses a bit configuration spaces, differential and…

We exhibit the first examples of links which are homologically thin but not quasi-alternating. To show that they are not quasi-alternating, we argue that none of their branched double-covers bounds a negative definite 4-manifold with…

Relative self-linking and linking "numbers" for pairs of knots in oriented 3-manifolds are defined in terms of intersection invariants of immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds. The resulting concordance invariants generalize the usual…

We produce skew loops -- loops having no pair of parallel tangent lines -- homotopic to any loop in a flat torus or other quotient of R^n. The interesting case here is n=3. More subtly for any n, we characterize the homotopy classes that…

We establish inequalities that constrain the genera of smooth cobordisms between knots in 4-dimensional cobordisms. These "relative adjunction inequalities" improve the adjunction inequalities for closed surfaces which have been…

We prove the Arnold chord conjecture on cotangent bundles of open manifold by Gromov's nonlinear Fredholm alternative for $J-$holomorphic curves.

We introduce a framework to analyze knots and links in an unmarked solid torus. We discuss invariants that detect when such links are equivalent under an ambient homeomorphism, and show that the multivariable Alexander polynomial is such in…

Given a noncompact disconnected complete periodic curve $\Gamma$ with no self intersection in $\mathbb R^3$, it is proved that there exists a noncompact simply connected periodic minimal surface spanning $\Gamma$. As an application it is…

Two knots are homology concordant if they are smoothly concordant in a homology cobordism. The group $\hat{\mathcal{C}}_{\mathbb{Z}}$ (resp. $\mathcal{C}_{\mathbb{Z}}$) was previously defined as the set of knots in homology spheres that…

The aims of this letter are three-fold: First is to show that nonlinear generalizations of electrodynamics support various types of knotted solutions in vacuum. The solutions are universal in the sense that they do not depend on the…

Let $\cC$ be a set of curves in the plane such that no three curves in $\cC$ intersect at a single point and every pair of curves in $\cC$ intersect at exactly one point which is either a crossing or a touching point. J\'anos Pach…

J. Davis showed that the topological concordance class of a link in the 3-sphere is uniquely determined by its Alexander polynomial for 2-component links with Alexander polynomial one. A similar result for knots with Alexander polynomial…

We study the gordian graph of all knots in $\R^3$: two knots are adjacent if they differ by a single crossing change. We prove that this graph contains isometrically an infinite countable tree with infinite valency, and that the complement…

We present a short proof of the fact that two irreducible germs of plane analytic curves are isotopic if they are equisingular, without recourse to the structure of the associated knots.

We present a new paradigm for three dimensional chaos, and specifically for the Lorenz equations. The main difficulty in these equations and for a generic flow in dimension three is the existence of singularities. We show how to use knot…

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…

Simple closed curves in the plane can be mapped to nontrivial knots under the action of origami foldings that allow the paper to self-intersect. We show all tame knot types may be produced in this manner, motivating the development of a new…

We investigate asymptotically flat manifolds with cone structure at infinity. We show that any such manifold M has a finite number of ends. For simply connected ends we classify all possible cones at infinity, except for the 4-dimensional…