English

A Seifert algorithm for integral homology spheres

Geometric Topology 2024-05-24 v1

Abstract

From classical knot theory we know that every knot in S3S^3 is the boundary of an oriented, embedded surface. A standard demonstration of this fact achieved by elementary technique comes from taking a regular projection of any knot and employing Seifert's constructive algorithm. In this note we give a natural generalization of Seifert's algorithm to any closed integral homology 3-sphere. The starting point of our algorithm is presenting the handle structure of a Heegaard splitting of a given integral homology sphere as a planar diagram on the boundary of a 33-ball. (For a well known example of such a planar presentation, see the Poincar\'e homology sphere planar presentation in {\em Knots and Links} by D. Rolfsen \cite{Rolfsen}.) An oriented link can then be represented by the regular projection of an oriented kk-strand tangle. From there we give a natural way to find a ``Seifert circle" and associated half-twisted bands.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.14805,
  title  = {A Seifert algorithm for integral homology spheres},
  author = {Linda V. Alegria and William W. Menasco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.14805},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages, 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:37:40.613Z