arXiv research

Study shows most odd pretzel knots don't allow chirally cosmetic surgeries.

Paper restricts chirally cosmetic surgeries on knots.

The study confirms that most positive 2-bridge knots up to 31 crossings do not have chirally cosmetic surgeries.

We show that a $(p,q)$-cable of a non-trivial knot $K$ does not admit chirally cosmetic surgery for $q\neq 2$, or $q=2$ with additional assumptions. In particular, we show that $(p,q)$-cable of non-trivial knot $K$ does not admit chirally cosmetic surgery as long as the JSJ piece of knot exterior does not contain $(2,r…

Study finds chirally cosmetic surgeries on knots and manifolds, contradicting previous conjectures.

Study shows most knots up to 10 crossings can't be chirally cosmetic.

New Heegaard Floer homology findings block chirally cosmetic surgeries.

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…

Study finds new knot distances and chirally cosmetic bands using grid diagrams.

Develops a braid-theoretic framework to analyze chirality in molecular knots.

Tying knots and linking microscopic loops of polymers, macromolecules, or defect lines in complex materials is a challenging task for material scientists. We demonstrate the knotting of microscopic topological defect lines in chiral nematic liquid crystal colloids into knots and links of arbitrary complexity by using l…

Study proves nontrivial knots can't undergo cosmetic surgeries.

We study chirally cosmetic surgeries, that is, a pair of Dehn surgeries on a knot producing homeomorphic 3-manifolds with opposite orientations. Several constraints on knots and surgery slopes to admit such surgeries are given. Our main ingredients are the original and the $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$ version of Casson invariant…

New proof for a knot type not admitting certain surgeries.

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. We will show that the cube number detects chirality in all cases computed thus far, and distinguishes certain legendrian knots.

We investigate properties of spatial graphs on the standard torus. It is known that nontrivial embeddings of planar graphs in the torus contain a nontrivial knot or a nonsplit link due to [1],[2]. Building on this and using the chirality of torus knots and links [3],[4], we prove that nontrivial embeddings of simple 3-…

Computes knot types using HOMFLY-PT polynomial.

In this paper we study embeddings of oriented connected closed surfaces in $\mathbb S^3$. We define a complete invariant, the fundamental span, for such embeddings, generalizing the notion of the peripheral system of a knot group. From the fundamental span, several computable invariants are derived and employed to stud…

The paper proves unique factorization of knotted handlebodies and examines handlebody-knot symmetry.

Special knots with many twists have no certain type of surgery.

Paper studies knotoid chirality using shadow quandle colorings and invariants.

We study 3-braid knots of finite smooth concordance order. A corollary of our main result is that a chiral 3-braid knot of finite concordance order is ribbon.

We introduce the notion of a $G$-family of quandles which is an algebraic system whose axioms are motivated by handlebody-knot theory, and use it to construct invariants for handlebody-knots. Our invariant can detect the chiralities of some handlebody-knots including unknown ones.

We present various examples of cosmetic bandings on knots and links, that is, bandings on knots and links leaving their types unchanged. As a byproduct, we give a hyperbolic knot which admits exotic chirally cosmetic surgeries yielding hyperbolic manifolds. This gives a counterexample to a conjecture raised by Bleiler,…

Let $K\subset S^3$ be a knot, $X:= S^3\setminus K$ its complement, and $\mathbb{T}$ the circle group identified with $\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$. To any oriented long knot diagram of $K$, we associate a quadratic polynomial in variables bijectively associated with the bridges of the diagram such that, when the variables pr…

Band surgery is an operation relating pairs of knots or links in the three-sphere. We prove that if two quasi-alternating knots $K$ and $K'$ of the same square-free determinant are related by a band surgery, then the absolute value of the difference in their signatures is either 0 or 8. This obstruction follows from a …

We study a twisted Alexander polynomial naturally associated to a hyperbolic knot in an integer homology 3-sphere via a lift of the holonomy representation to SL(2, C). It is an unambiguous symmetric Laurent polynomial whose coefficients lie in the trace field of the knot. It contains information about genus, fibering,…

New algorithm constructs characters of rational VOAs from knot complements.

We investigate commensurability classes of hyperbolic knot complements in the generic case of knots without hidden symmetries. We show that such knot complements which are commensurable are cyclically commensurable, and that there are at most $3$ hyperbolic knot complements in a cyclic commensurability class. Moreover …

We categorise coherent band (aka nullification) pathways between knots and 2-component links. Additionally, we characterise the minimal coherent band pathways (with intermediates) between any two knots or 2-component links with small crossing number. We demonstrate these band surgeries for knots and links with small cr…

We publish a table of primitive finite-type invariants of order less than or equal to six, for knots of ten or fewer crossings. We note certain mod-2 congruences, one of which leads to a chirality criterion in the Alexander polynomial. We state a computational result on mod-2 finite-type invariants of 2-strand string l…

We describe rational knots with any of the possible combinations of the properties (a)chirality, (non-)positivity, (non-)fiberedness, and unknotting number one (or higher), and determine exactly their number for a given number of crossings in terms of their generating functions. We show in particular how Fibonacci numb…

Study on symmetric braid index of ribbon knots, deriving bounds and characterizations.

A polynomial invariant of virtual links, arising from an invariant of links in thickened surfaces introduced by Jaeger, Kauffman, and Saleur, is defined and its properties are investigated. Examples are given that the invariant can detect chirality and even non-invertibility of virtual knots and links. Furthermore, it …

This paper describes a method for the automatic evaluation of the Links-Gould two-variable polynomial link invariant (LG) for any link, given only a braid presentation. This method is currently feasible for the evaluation of LG for links for which we have a braid presentation of string index at most 5. Data are present…

We construct and study a closed, two-dimensional, quasi-topological (0,2) gauged sigma model with target space a smooth G-manifold, where G is any compact and connected Lie group. When the target space is a flag manifold of simple G, and the gauge group is a Cartan subgroup thereof, the perturbative model describes, pu…

Quandle colorings and cocycle invariants are studied for composite knots, and applied to chirality and abelian extensions. The square and granny knots, for example, can be distinguished by quandle colorings, so that a trefoil and its mirror can be distinguished by quandle invariants of composite knots. We investigate t…

We study small Seifert possibly chiral cosmetic surgeries on not necessarily null-homologous knot in rational homology spheres. Using $PSL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety theory we give a sharp bound on the number of slopes producing the same small Seifert manifold if the ambient manifold satisfies some representation…

Three new knot invariants are defined using cocycles of the generalized quandle homology theory that was proposed by Andruskiewitsch and Graña. We specialize that theory to the case when there is a group action on the coefficients. First, quandle modules are used to generalize Burau representations and Alexander module…

Two new minor minimal intrinsically chiral graphs identified.

The paper verifies no cosmetic surgeries on knots and 3-manifolds using hyperbolic geometry.

Chiral string integrands simplify to ambitwistor string integrands in the tensionless limit.

This paper identifies all topological symmetry groups for Heawood family graphs.

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…

3-manifolds are chiral if not finitely covered by sphere or product.

New knot polynomials derived from Nichols algebras and braided Hopf algebras.

We define a notion of stability for chiral ring of four dimensional N=1 theory by introducing test chiral rings and generalized a maximization. We conjecture that a chiral ring is the chiral ring of a superconformal field theory if and only if it is stable. We then study N=1 field theory derived from D3 branes probing …

Tensor measures chirality for curves, even those with rough edges.