arXiv research

Deciding 3-manifolds fibering over the circle is in NP

For each three-bridge link of a certain form, we construct a taut Seifert surface for the link and establish whether the link is fibred. Using this, we also give the genus and fibredness of satellite knots whose pattern is constructed from a two-component two-bridge link in the case not addressed by work of Hirasawa an…

A torti-rational knot, denoted by K(2a,b|r), is a knot obtained from the 2-bridge link B(2a,b) by applying Dehn twists an arbitrary number of times, r, along one component of B(2a,b). We determine the genus of K(2a,b|r) and solve a question of when K(2a,b|r) is fibred. In most cases, the Alexander polynomials determine…

Among all torus links, we characterise those arising as links of simple plane curve singularities by the property that their fibre surfaces admit only a finite number of cutting arcs that preserve fibredness. The same property allows a characterisation of Coxeter-Dynkin trees (i.e., $A_n$, $D_n$, $E_6$, $E_7$ and $E_8$…

A knot \widetilde{K} \subset S^3 is q-periodic if there is a \mathbb Z_q-action preserving \widetilde{K} whose fixed set is an unknot U. The quotient of \widetilde{K} under the action is a second knot K. We construct equivariant Heegaard diagrams for q-periodic knots, and show that Murasugi's classical condition on the…

Study of knotted defects in smectic liquid crystals using topological knot theory.