arXiv research

Classifies fibered ribbon pretzels, except for a few cases.

Any Haken 3--manifold (possibly with boundary consisting of tori) can be transformed into a $\mathrm{surface}\times S^1$ by a series of splitting and regluing along incompressible surfaces. This fact was proved by Gabai as an application of his sutured manifold theory. The first half of this paper provides a few techni…

We define the Wirtinger width of a knot. Then we prove the Wirtinger width of a knot equals its Gabai width. The algorithmic nature of the Wirtinger width leads to an efficient technique for establishing upper bounds on Gabai width. As an application, we use this technique to calculate the Gabai width of approximately …

A rational homology sphere whose Heegaard Floer homology is the same as that of a lens space is called an L-space. We classify pretzel knots with any number of tangles which admit L-space surgeries. This rests on Gabai's classification of fibered pretzel links.

We present a new, completely three-dimensional proof of the fact, due to Gabai-Eliashberg-Thurston, that every closed, oriented, irreducible 3-manifold with nonzero second homology carries a universally tight contact structure.

We correct and complete a conjecture of D. Gabai, R. Meyerhoff and N. Thurston on the classification and properties of thin tubed closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds. We additionally show that if N is a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold, then either N=Vol3 or N contains a closed geodesic that is the core of an embedded tube of ra…

We show that if a knot has a minimal spanning surface that admits certain Gabai disks, then this knot has Property P. As one of the applications we extend and simplify a recent result of Menasco and Zhang that closed 3-braid knots have Property P. Other applications are given.

New invariant detects more elements in 4D diffeomorphism group.

In this note I present my understanding of, that is to say the way I look at, David Gabai's proof of his recent 4-Dimensional Light Bulb Theorem (4D-LBT). His construction, entirely smooth, is an ingenious amalgam of classical moves, and represents the first new hands-on advance in constructive smooth 4-manifold theory…

Let $P(K)$ be a satellite knot where the pattern, $P$, is a Berge-Gabai knot (i.e., a knot in the solid torus with a non-trivial solid torus Dehn surgery), and the companion, $K$, is a non-trivial knot in $S^3$. We prove that $P(K)$ is an L-space knot if and only if $K$ is an L-space knot and $P$ is sufficiently positi…

Study proves 0-surgery characterizes infinitely many knots.

In this technical note, we adapt an idea of Gabai to construct non-uniquely ergodic, non-geometric, arational trees.

New 3D handlebodies in 4-sphere and 5-ball are not isotopic even with same boundary.

4D theorem for disks, generalizing previous work.

Contact structures on 3-manifolds are analyzed by decomposing the manifold along convex surfaces. Background results of Giroux, Eliashberg, Colin, and Honda are discussed with an emphasis on examples. Convex decompositions are then used to give a new proof of the Gabai-Eliashberg-Thurston Theorem on the existence of un…

New knot homologies detect non-fibered knots, expanding on previous results.

The article examines how many stabilizations are needed to transform 5D s-cobordisms into product cobordisms.

David Gabai recently proved a smooth 4-dimensional "Light Bulb Theorem" in the absence of 2-torsion in the fundamental group. We extend his result to 4-manifolds with arbitrary fundamental group by showing that an invariant of Mike Freedman and Frank Quinn gives the complete obstruction to "homotopy implies isotopy" fo…

We give a sufficient condition for a branched surface in a 3 dimensional manifold to fully carry a lamination, giving a piece of answer to a classical question of D. Gabai.

We define a new notion of thin position for a graph in a 3-manifold which combines the ideas of thin position for manifolds first originated by Scharlemann and Thompson with the idea of thin position for knots first originated by Gabai. This thin position has the property that connect summing annuli and pairs-of-pants …

A natural generalization of a crossing change is a rational subtangle replacement (RSR). We characterize the fundamental situation of the rational tangles obtained from a given rational tangle via RSR, building on work of Berge and Gabai, and determine the sites where these RSR may occur. In addition we also determine …

We show that for any nontrivial knot in $S^3$, there is an open interval containing zero such that a Dehn surgery on any slope in this interval yields a 3-manifold with taut foliations. This generalizes a theorem of Gabai on zero frame surgery.

We present a short elementary proof of an existence theorem of certain CAT(-1)-surfaces in open hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The main construction lemma in Calegari and Gabai's proof of Marden's Tameness Conjecture can be replaced by an applicable version of our theorem.

Marden's Tameness Conjecture predicts that every hyperbolic 3-manifold with finitely generated fundamental group is homeomorphic to the interior of a compact 3-manifold. It was recently established by Agol and Calegari-Gabai. We will survey the history of work on this conjecture and discuss its many applications.

In this note, we prove that if the boundary of a Mazur-type $4$-manifold is an irreducible Heegaard Floer homology $L$-space, then the manifold must be the $4$-ball, and the boundary must be the $3$-sphere. We use this to give a new proof of Gabai's Property R.

Thurston's hyperbolization theorem for Haken manifolds and normal surface theory yield an algorithm to determine whether or not a compact orientable 3-manifold with nonempty boundary consisting of tori admits a complete finite-volume hyperbolic metric on its interior. A conjecture of Gabai, Meyerhoff, and Milley reduce…

We enumerate the small-volume manifolds that can be obtained by Dehn filling on Mom-2 and Mom-3 manifolds as defined by Gabai, Meyerhoff, and the author. In so doing we complete the proof that the Weeks manifold is the minimum-volume compact hyperbolic 3-manifold, as well as enumerating the 10 smallest one-cusped hyper…

Ozsváth and Szabó conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred links. We will verify this conjecture for closed 3-braids, by classifying fibred closed 3-braids. In particular, given a nontrivial closed 3-braid, either it is fibred, or it differs from a fibred link by a half twist. The proof uses Gabai's method o…

New method finds unique branched surfaces in 3-manifolds.

In this note, we combine the recent 4-dimensional light bulb theorem of David Gabai and a recent construction of concordances for knots in $S^2\times S^1$ due to Eylem Zeliha Yildiz to construct a concordance between the standard surface of genus $g$ in $S^2\times S^2$ and any homologous surface.

We study Dehn surgeries on null-homotopic knots that yield fibred $3$--manifolds when an additional (but natural) homological restriction is imposed. The major tool used is Gabai's theory of sutured manifold decomposition. Such surgeries are negative examples to a question of Michel Boileau. Another result we will prov…

We propose a classification of knots in S^1 x S^2 that admit a longitudinal surgery to a lens space. Any lens space obtainable by longitudinal surgery on some knots in S^1 x S^2 may be obtained from a Berge-Gabai knot in a Heegaard solid torus of S^1 x S^2, as observed by Rasmussen. We show that there are yet two other…

We prove that the map on knot Floer homology induced by a ribbon concordance is injective. As a consequence, we prove that the Seifert genus is monotonic under ribbon concordance. We also generalize a theorem of Gabai about the super-additivity of the Seifert genus under band connected sum. Our result gives evidence fo…

Ozsvath and Szabo conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred knots. We propose a strategy to approach this conjecture based on Gabai's theory of sutured manifold decomposition and contact topology. We implement this strategy for genus-one knots, obtaining as a corollary that, if rational surgery on a knot $K$ …

We find conditions under which a non-orientable closed surface S embedded into an orientable closed 4-manifold X can be represented by a connected sum of an embedded closed surface in X and an unknotted projective plane in a 4-sphere. This allows us to extend the Gabai 4-dimensional light bulb theorem and the Auckly-Ki…

Motivated by a recent paper of Gabai on the Whitehead contractible 3-manifold, we investigate contractible manifolds $M^n$ which decompose or split as $M^n = A \cup_C B$ where $A,B,C \approx \mathbb{R}^n$ or $A,B,C \approx \mathbb{B}^n$. Of particular interest to us is the case $n=4.$ Our main results exhibit large col…

We show that for any simple closed curve in the sphere at infinity of a Gromov hyperbolic 3-space with cocompact metric, there exist a properly embedded least area plane in the space spanning the given curve. This gives a positive answer to a conjecture of Gabai. Soma has already proven this conjecture earlier. Our tec…

We construct infinitely many smooth oriented 4-manifolds containing pairs of homotopic, smoothly embedded 2-spheres that are not topologically isotopic, but that are equivalent by an ambient diffeomorphism inducing the identity on homology. These examples show that Gabai's recent "Generalized" 4D Lightbulb Theorem does…

We define sutured Heegaard diagrams for null-homologous knots in 3-manifolds. These diagrams are useful for computing the knot Floer homology at the top filtration level. As an application, we give a formula for the knot Floer homology of a Murasugi sum. Our result echoes Gabai's earlier works. We also show that for so…

We use SO(3) gauge theory to define a functor from a category of unoriented webs and foams to the category of finite-dimensional vector spaces over the field of two elements. We prove a non-vanishing theorem for this SO(3) instanton homology of webs, using Gabai's sutured manifold theory. It is hoped that the non-vanis…

Ozsvath and Szabo proved that knot Floer homology determines the genera of knots in S^3. We will generalize this deep result to links in homology 3-spheres, by adapting their method. Our proof relies on a result of Gabai and some constructions related to foliations. We also interpret a theorem of Kauffman in the world …

Colding and Gabai have given an effective version of Li's theorem that non-Haken hyperbolic 3-manifolds have finitely many irreducible Heegaard splittings. As a corollary of their work, we show that Haken hyperbolic 3-manifolds have a finite collection of strongly irreducible Heegaard surfaces $S_i$ and incompressible …

We show that every topological surface lamination of a 3-manifold M is isotopic to one with smoothly immersed leaves. This carries out a project proposed by Gabai in [Problems in foliations and laminations, AMS/IP Stud. Adv. Math. 2.2 1--33]. Consequently any such lamination admits the structure of a Riemann surface la…

We propose a generalization of the classical notions of plumbing and Murasugi summing operations to smooth manifolds of arbitrary dimensions, so that in this general context Gabai's credo "the Murasugi sum is a natural geometric operation" holds. In particular, we prove that the sum of the pages of two open books is ag…

We analyse the existence question for essential laminations in 3-manifolds. The purpose is to prove that there are infinitely many closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds which do not admit essential laminations. This answers in the negative a question posed by Gabai and Oertel. The proof is obtained by analysing certain group a…

We define two new families of invariants for (3-manifold, graph) pairs which detect the unknot and are additive under connected sum of pairs and (-1/2)-additive under trivalent vertex sum of pairs. The first of these families is closely related to both bridge number and tunnel number. The second of these families is a …

Thin position for knots in the 3-sphere was introduced by Gabai and has been used in a variety of contexts. We conjecture an analogue to a theorem of Schubert and Schultens concerning the bridge number of satellite knots. For a satellite knot K, we use the companion torus T to provide a lower bound for w(K), proving th…

Ozsváth and Szabó conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred knots in $S^3$. We will prove this conjecture for null-homologous knots in arbitrary closed 3--manifolds. Namely, if $K$ is a knot in a closed 3--manifold $Y$, $Y-K$ is irreducible, and $\hat{HFK}(Y,K)$ is monic, then $K$ is fibred. The proof relies …