相关论文: The Plain Sphere Number of a Link
We introduce a geometric operation, which we call the relative Whitney trick, that removes a single double point between properly immersed surfaces in a $4$-manifold with boundary. Using the relative Whitney trick we prove that every link…
In this paper we investigate the relationship between links in bridge position and plat presentations. We will show that the Hilden double coset classes of plat presentations of a link are equivalent to bridge positions of the link up to…
We present a short exposition of the following results by S. Parsa. Let $L$ be a graph such that the join $L*\{1,2,3\}$ (i.e. the union of three cones over $L$ along their common bases) piecewise linearly (PL) embeds into $\mathbb R^4$.…
Let $M$ be a connected, closed, oriented three-manifold and $K$, $L$ two rationally null-homologous oriented simple closed curves in $M$. We give an explicit algorithm for computing the linking number between $K$ and $L$ in terms of a…
We prove that if $Y$ is a closed, oriented 3-manifold with first homology $H_1(Y;\mathbb{Z})$ of order less than $5$, then there is an irreducible representation $\pi_1(Y) \to \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ unless $Y$ is homeomorphic to $S^3$,…
This is the last of a series of papers which give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement to be homotopic in the link complement. The first paper of the series…
Grid diagrams encode useful geometric information about knots in S^3. In particular, they can be used to combinatorially define the knot Floer homology of a knot K in S^3, and they have a straightforward connection to Legendrian…
We give a new technique for constructing presentations by generators and relations for representations of groups like $SL_n(\mathbb{Z})$ and $Sp_{2g}(\mathbb{Z})$. Our results play an important role in recent work of the authors calculating…
In this paper, we give an isotopy classification of 3-bridge spheres of 3-bridge arborescent links, which are not Montesinos links. To this end, we prove a certain refinement of a theorem of J.S. Birman and H.M. Hilden on the relation…
Wu has shown that if a link or a knot $L$ in $S^3$ in thin position has thin spheres, then the thin sphere of lowest width is an essential surface in the link complement. In this paper we show that if we further assume that $L \subset S^3$…
From classical knot theory we know that every knot in $S^3$ 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…
Meier and Zupan showed that every surface in the four-sphere admits a bridge trisection and can therefore be represented by three simple tangles. This raises the possibility of applying methods from link homology to knotted surfaces. We use…
The connectivity of graphs of simplicial and polytopal complexes is a classical subject going back at least to Steinitz, and the topic has since been studied by many authors, including Balinski, Barnette, Athanasiadis and Bjorner. In this…
We study simplicial complexes with a given number of vertices whose Stanley-Reisner ring has the minimal possible Betti numbers. We find that these simplicial complexes have very special combinatorial and topological structures. For…
We consider a family of cyclic presentations and show that, subject to certain conditions on the defining parameters, they are spines of closed 3-manifolds. These are new examples where the reduced Whitehead graphs are of the same type as…
Suppose L is a link in $S^3$. We show that $\pi_1(S^3-L)$ admits an irreducible meridian-traceless representation in SU(2) if and only if L is not the unknot, the Hopf link, or a connected sum of Hopf links. As a corollary, $\pi_1(S^3-L)$…
We construct infinite families of non-simple isotopy classes of links in overtwisted contact structures on $S^1$-bundles over surfaces. These examples include: (1) a pair of Legendrian links that are not Legendrian isotopic, but which are…
In this paper, properties of a link $L$ in the projective space $\mathbb R P^3$ are related to properties of its group $\pi_1(\mathbb R P^3\smallsetminus L)$: $L$ is isotopic to a projective line if and only if $\pi_1(\mathbb R…
A well-known theorem of Whitney states that a 3-connected planar graph admits an essentially unique embedding into the 2-sphere. We prove a 3-dimensional analogue: a simply-connected $2$-complex every link graph of which is 3-connected…
This paper concerns thin presentations of knots K in closed 3-manifolds M^3 which produce S^3 by Dehn surgery, for some slope gamma. If M does not have a lens space as a connected summand, we first prove that all such thin presentations,…