arXiv research

Kirby and Lickorish showed that every knot in the 3-sphere is concordant to a prime knot, equivalently, every concordance class contains a prime knot. We prove here that their result can be strengthened: Every knot in the 3-sphere is invertibly concordant to a prime knot. A consequence is that every double concordance …

Listed 19,513 prime knots with arc index 12-16.

Computed the 4-genus for all 12-crossing prime knots.

Proves prime theta-curves for knots on minimal genus surfaces.

Expanding on prime knots with 6 or less mosaic tiles, this paper analyzes those with 7 tiles.

It is known that the first two-variable Links--Gould quantum link invariant $LG\equiv LG^{2,1}$ is more powerful than the HOMFLYPT and Kauffman polynomials, in that it distinguishes all prime knots (including reflections) of up to 10 crossings. Here we report investigations which greatly expand the set of evaluations o…

New invariant for prime alternating knots from error-correcting codes

This paper finds all prime alternating knots with minimal warping degree two.

Computations for prime knots up to 11 crossings.

This is the first in a series of four papers wherein we enumerate all prime alternating knots and links. In this first paper, we introduce four operators on knots and show that, when used according to very simple rules on the prime alternating knots of n crossings, the set of all prime alternating knots of n+1 crossing…

Minimal grid diagrams for 12-crossing prime knots identified.

We prove that a prime knot K is not determined by its p-fold cyclic branched cover for at most two odd primes p. Moreover, we show that for a given odd prime p, the p-fold cyclic branched cover of a prime knot K is the p-fold cyclic branched cover of at most one more knot K' non equivalent to K. To prove the main theor…

Study grid homology of diagonal knots, finding key terms related to prime factors and decompositions.

Knots 4_1 and 5_1 can be paired to show unknotting number is not additive.

We construct prime amphicheiral knots that have free period 2. This settles an open question raised by the second named author, who proved that amphicheiral hyperbolic knots cannot admit free periods and that prime amphicheiral knots cannot admit free periods of order >2.

A partial order on the set of prime knots can be defined by the existence of an epimorphism between knot groups. We prove that all the prime knots with up to $6$ crossings are minimal. We also show that each fibered knot with the irreducible Alexander polynomial is minimal.

Identifies doubly slice genera for 2909 prime knots with up to 12 crossings.

Study identifies prime strongly positive amphicheiral knots with double symmetry.

As a supplement to the authors' article "Prime knots with arc index up to 11 and an upper bound of arc index for non-alternating knots", to appear in the Journal of Knot Theory and its Ramifications, we present minimal arc presentations of the prime knots up to arc index 11.

Minimal grid diagrams found for 13-crossing prime knots with 13 arc index.

Upper bound on Jones polynomials density modulo primes.

Tests using knot Floer homology detect prime knots with high accuracy.

The study proves all prime knots up to 10 crossings have superbridge index ≤ 5.

Character varieties of prime knots have high-dimensional components.

This is the second of a part series devoted to enumerating prime alternating knots and links. In Part I, we introduced four operators on knots and showed that if these operators are applied to the set of all prime alternating knots of n crossings, the set of all prime alternating knots of n+1 crossings is obtained. In …

This paper tabulates prime knot projections up to eight double points.

In this paper we present a systematic method to generate prime knot and prime link minimal triple-point projections, and then classify all classical prime knots and prime links with triple-crossing number at most four. We also extend the table of known knots and links with triple-crossing number equal to five. By intro…

Any knot group is the image of the group of a prime knot by a homomorphism that preserves peripheral structure. In fact, there are infinitely many such prime knots. A related partial order on knots is defined, and its properties are discussed.

Algebraic methods prove knot primality using Floer homology.

New knots found with non-trivial Steenrod operations on Khovanov homology.

We give the bridge indices for 11-crossing prime knots and give a minimal bridge projection for each of these knots. The results on the indices may be easily summarized: all of these knots that are not rational knots or Montesinos knots have bridge index three.

Using computational techniques we tabulate prime knots up to five crossings in the solid torus and the infinite family of lens spaces $L(p,q)$. For these knots we calculate the second and third skein module and establish which prime knots in the solid torus are amphichiral. Most knots are distinguished by the skein mod…

Positive braid knots have simple knot Floer homology.

Computes CP²-genus of all prime knots up to 8-crossings.

Every knot can be embedded in the union of finitely many half planes with a common boundary line in such a way that the portion of the knot in each half plane is a properly embedded arc. The minimal number of such half planes is called the arc index of the knot. We have identified all prime knots with arc index up to 1…

Let $Σ_0,Σ_1$ be closed oriented surfaces. Two oriented knots $K_0 \subset Σ_0 \times [0,1]$ and $K_1 \subset Σ_1 \times [0,1]$ are said to be (virtually) concordant if there is a compact oriented $3$-manifold $W$ and a smoothly and properly embedded annulus $A$ in $W \times [0,1]$ such that $\partial W=Σ_1 \sqcup -Σ_0…

We present an enhanced prime decomposition theorem for knots that gives the isotopy classes of composite knots that can be constructed from a given list of prime factors (allowing for the mirroring and orientation reversing for each factor). Underlying the theorem is an algebraic construction that also allows for the c…

This is the third paper in a series devoted to enumerating the prime alternating knots and links. This paper establishes a method for enumerating the prime alternating links. It is shown that one may choose any prime alternating link diagram of a given minimal crossing size and by applications of just two operators (T …

Minimal grid diagrams found for 13-crossing prime knots.

It is known that the arc index of alternating knots is the minimal crossing number plus two and the arc index of prime nonalternating knots is less than or equal to the minimal crossing number. We study some cases when the arc index is strictly less than the minimal crossing number. We also give minimal grid diagrams o…

The study examines biorderability of prime knots up to eight crossings.

This paper proves that every oriented non-disk Seifert surface $F$ for a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is smoothly concordant to a Seifert surface $F^{\prime}$ for a hyperbolic knot $K^{\prime}$ of arbitrarily large volume. This gives a new and simpler proof of the result of Friedl and of Kawauchi that every knot is $S$-equivalent…

Let $K$ be a prime knot in $S^3$ and $G(K)=π_1(S^3-K)$ the knot group. We write $K_1 \geq K_2$ if there exists a surjective homomorphism from $G(K_1)$ onto $G(K_2)$. In this paper, we determine this partial order on the set of prime knots with up to 11 crossings. There exist such 801 prime knots and then $640,800$ shou…

Let K' be a knot that admits no cosmetic crossing changes and let C be a non-trivial, prime, non-cable knot. Then any knot that is a satellite of C with winding number zero and pattern K' admits no cosmetic crossing changes. As a consequence we prove the nugatory crossing conjecture for Whitehead doubles of prime, non-…

New knot polynomials yield simple results modulo primes.

This is an expository article of our work on analogies between knot theory and algebraic number theory. We shall discuss foundational analogies between knots and primes, 3-manifolds and number rings mainly from the group-theoretic point of view.

This paper computes Kakimizu complexes for all 11 crossing prime alternating knots.

Cyclic covers of knots uniquely determine the original knot.