arXiv research

We study the Thurston-Bennequin number of complete and complete bipartite Legendrian graphs. We define a new invariant called the total Thurston-Bennequin number of the graph. We show that this invariant is determined by the Thurston-Bennequin numbers of 3-cycles for complete graphs and by the Thurston-Bennequin number…

Paper proves Legendrian knots with same GL-rack have similar invariants.

We compute the maximal Thurston-Bennequin number for a Legendrian two-bridge knot or oriented two-bridge link in standard contact R^3, by showing that the upper bound given by the Kauffman polynomial is sharp. As an application, we present a table of maximal Thurston-Bennequin numbers for prime knots with nine or fewer…

We discuss the relation between arc index, maximal Thurston--Bennequin number, and Khovanov homology for knots. As a consequence, we calculate the arc index and maximal Thurston--Bennequin number for all knots with at most 11 crossings. For some of these knots, the calculation requires a consideration of cables which a…

We classify Legendrian knots of topological type $7_6$ having maximal Thurston--Bennequin number confirming the corresponding conjectures of Chongchitmate--Ng.

We establish a relation between several easy-to-calculate numerical invariants of generic knots in $\mathbb{H}^2 \times S^1$, and use it to give a new method of computing the Thurston-Bennequin number of Legendrian knots in the tight contact $\mathbb{R}^3$.

Using a knot concordance invariant from the Heegaard Floer theory of Ozsvath and Szabo, we obtain new bounds for the Thurston-Bennequin and rotation numbers of Legendrian knots in S^3. We also apply these bounds to calculate the knot concordance invariant for certain knots.

4-Legendrian permutation racks can't distinguish knots but recover classical invariants.

We establish an upper bound for the Thurston-Bennequin number of a Legendrian link using the Khovanov homology of the underlying topological link. This bound is sharp in particular for all alternating links, and knots with nine or fewer crossings.

A flat plumbing basket is a surface consisting a disk and finitely many bands which are contained in distinct pages of the trivial open book decomposition of $\mathbf{S}^{3}$. In this paper, we construct a Legendrian link from a flat plumbing basket, and we describe a relation among the self-linking number, the Thursto…

For a knot $K$ the cube number is a knot invariant defined to be the smallest $n$ for which there is a cube diagram of size $n$ for $K$. There is also a Legendrian version of this invariant called the \emph{Legendrian cube number}. We will show that the Legendrian cube number distinguishes the Legendrian left hand toru…

Odd crossing numbers and even rotation numbers for cycles in plane immersions.

The class of +adequate links contains both alternating and positive links. Generalizing results of Tanaka (for the positive case) and Ng (for the alternating case), we construct fronts of an arbitrary +adequate link A so that the diagram has a ruling, therefore its Thurston-Bennequin number is maximal among Legendrian …

Study of strongly invertible Legendrian links in contact 3-space.

A generalised Thurston-Bennequin invariant for a Q-singularity of a real algebraic variety is defined as a linking form on the homologies of the real link of the singularity. The main goal of this paper is to present a method to calculate the linking form in terms of the very good resolution graph of a real normal unib…

We give a method for constructing a Legendrian representative of a knot in $S^3$ which realizes its maximal Thurston-Bennequin number under a certain condition. The method utilizes Stein handle decompositions of $D^4$, and the resulting Legendrian representative is often very complicated (relative to the complexity of …

In this paper, we introduce a rational $τ$ invariant for rationally null-homologous knots in contact 3-manifolds with nontrivial Ozsváth-Szabó contact invariants. Such an invariant is an upper bound for the sum of rational Thurston-Bennequin invariant and the rational rotation number of the Legendrian representatives o…

In 1997, Chekanov gave the first example of a Legendrian nonsimple knot type: the $m(5_2)$ knot. Epstein, Fuchs, and Meyer extended his result by showing that there are at least $n$ different Legendrian representatives with maximal Thurston--Bennequin number of the twist knot $K_{-2n}$ with crossing number $2n+1$. In t…

For a 4-manifold represented by a framed knot in $S^3$, it has been well known that the 4-manifold admits a Stein structure if the framing is less than the maximal Thurston-Bennequin number of the knot. In this paper, we prove either the converse of this fact is false or there exists a compact contractible oriented smo…

We give a simple unified proof for several disparate bounds on Thurston-Bennequin number for Legendrian knots and self-linking number for transverse knots in R^3, and provide a template for possible future bounds. As an application, we give sufficient conditions for some of these bounds to be sharp.

The study provides a criterion to compute the total Thurston-Bennequin invariant of Legendrian graphs.

New inequality for links in 3D using 4D invariants.

We show that any open subset of a contact manifold of dimension greater than three contains a certain non-convex hypersurface violating the Thurston-Bennequin inequality.

We give explicit formulas and algorithms for the computation of the rotation number of a nullhomologous Legendrian knot on a page of a contact open book. On the way, we derive new formulas for the computation of the Thurston-Bennequin invariant of such knots and the Euler class and the d3-invariant of the underlying co…

In \cite{confol} Y. Eliashberg and W. Thurston gave a definition of tight confoliations. We give an example of a tight confoliation $ξ$ on $T^3$ violating the Thurston-Bennequin inequalities. This answers a question from \cite{confol} negatively. Although the tightness of a confoliation does not imply the Thurston-Benn…

In the present paper we determine the Thurston-Bennequin invariant of graph divide links, which include all closed positive braids, all divide links and certain negative twist knots. As a corollary of this and a result of P. Lisca and A.I. Stipsicz, we prove that the 3-manifold obtained from the 3-sphere by Dehn surger…

Half grid diagrams prove every link can be represented by a special type of grid diagram.

We show that there exists a Legendrian knot with maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant whose contact homology is trivial. We also provide another Legendrian knot which has the same knot type and classical invariants but nonvanishing contact homology.

We use the spanning tree model for Khovanov homology to study Legendrian links. This leads to an alternative proof for Ng's Khovanov bound for the Thurston-Bennequin number and to both a necessary and a sufficient condition for this bound to be sharp.

We give explicit formulas and algorithms for the computation of the Thurston-Bennequin invariant of a nullhomologous Legendrian knot on a page of a contact open book and on contact Heegaard surfaces. Furthermore, we extend the results to rationally nullhomologous knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds.

In this article, we consider the maximal value of the Thurston--Bennequin invariant of Legendrian knots which topologically represent a fixed knot type in the standard contact 3-space and we prove a formula of the value under the connected sum operation of knots.

Computes homotopy types of embedding spaces in tight contact 3-manifolds.

Study the spaces of Legendrian knots and links with maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant.

For a Legendrian $(2,n)$ torus knot or link with maximal Thurston-Bennequin number, Ekholm, Honda, and Kálmán constructed $C_n$ exact Lagrangian fillings, where $C_n$ is the $n$-th Catalan number. We show that these exact Lagrangian fillings are pairwise non-isotopic through exact Lagrangian isotopy. To do that, we com…

We define the Thurston-Bennequin polytope of a two-component link as the convex hull of all pairs of integers that arise as framings of a Legendrian representative. The main result of this paper is a description of the Thurston-Bennequin polytope for two-bridge links. As an application, we construct non-quasipositive s…

Using the knot Floer homology filtration, we define invariants associated to a knot in a three-manifold possessing non-vanishing Floer co(homology) classes. In the case of the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant we obtain an invariant of knots in a contact three-manifold. This invariant provides an upper bound for the Thur…

The Thurston-Bennequin invariant provides one notion of self-linking for any homologically-trivial Legendrian curve in a contact three-manifold. Here we discuss related analytic notions of self-linking for Legendrian knots in Euclidean space. Our definition is based upon a reformulation of the elementary Gauss linking …

New Legendrian bounds for non-fibered knots in 3-manifolds.

It is shown that Legendrian (resp. transverse) cable links in the 3-sphere with its standard tight contact structure, i.e. links consisting of an unknot and a cable of that unknot, are classified by their oriented link type and the classical invariants (Thurston-Bennequin invariant and rotation number in the Legendrian…

This article describes the following results which relate to each other; i) convergence of high dimensional contact structure to codimension one foliation with Reeb component, ii) relation between Nil-type and Sol-type contact submanifolds of S^5, iii) definition of convex Thurston-Bennequin inequality, and iv) general…

In this article we give necessary and sufficient conditions for two triples of integers to be realized as the Thurston-Bennequin number and the rotation number of a Legendrian theta-graph with all cycles unknotted. We show that these invariants are not enough to determine the Legendrian class of a topologically planar …

We apply results from both contact topology and exceptional surgery theory to study when Legendrian surgery on a knot yields a reducible manifold. As an application, we show that a reducible surgery on a non-cabled positive knot of genus g must have slope 2g-1, leading to a proof of the cabling conjecture for positive …

Study on knots in contact manifolds, focusing on their width and thickness.

We investigate properties of the odd Khovanov homology, compare and contrast them with those of the original (even) Khovanov homology, and discuss applications of the odd Khovanov homology to other areas of knot theory and low-dimensional topology. We show that it provides an effective upper bound on the Thurston-Benne…

In this article we define Lagrangian concordance of Legendrian knots, the analogue of smooth concordance of knots in the Legendrian category. In particular we study the relation of Lagrangian concordance under Legendrian isotopy. The focus is primarily on the algebraic aspects of the problem. We study the behavior of t…

In the present paper a criteria for a rectangular diagram to admit a simplification is given in terms of Legendrian knots. It is shown that there are two types of simplifications which are mutually independent in a sense. A new proof of the monotonic simplification theorem for the unknot is given. It is shown that a mi…

In the note we study Legendrian and transverse knots in rationally null-homologous knot types. In particular we generalize the standard definitions of self-linking number, Thurston-Bennequin invariant and rotation number. We then prove a version of Bennequin's inequality for these knots and classify precisely when the …

We determine the pairs of torus knots that have a genus one cobordism between them, with one notable exception. This is done by combining obstructions using $ν^+$ from the Heegaard Floer knot complex and explicit constructions of cobordisms. As an application, we determine the pairs of torus knots related by a single c…