English

Knots that share four surgeries

Geometric Topology 2025-06-05 v2 Symplectic Geometry

Abstract

Distinct knots K, K' can sometimes share a common p/q-framed Dehn surgery. A folk conjecture held that for a fixed pair of knots, this can occur for at most one value of p/q. We disprove this conjecture by constructing pairs of distinct knots K,K' that have common Dehn surgeries for four distinct slopes. We also construct non-isotopic Legendrian knots K,K' that have contactomorphic contact (+1)-and (-1)-surgeries, disproving an analogous conjecture in contact geometry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.13168,
  title  = {Knots that share four surgeries},
  author = {Marc Kegel and Lisa Piccirillo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.13168},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

22 pages, 18 figures, 1 table; V2: Added supporting code and data to the arXiv

R2 v1 2026-07-01T02:22:00.042Z