arXiv research

We explain how the usual algebras of Feynman diagrams behave under the grope degree introduced in "Grope cobordism of classical knots." We show that the Kontsevich integral rationally classifies grope cobordisms of knots in 3-space when the ``class'' is used to organize gropes. This implies that the grope cobordism equ…

We explain the notion of a grope cobordism between two knots in a 3-manifold. Each grope cobordism has a type that can be described by a rooted unitrivalent tree. By filtering these trees in different ways, we show how the Goussarov-Habiro approach to finite type invariants of knots is closely related to our notion of …

Embedding calculus invariants solve knot connectivity and grope cobordism problems.

Many open problems and important theorems in low-dimensional topology have been formulated as statements about certain 2--complexes called gropes. This paper describes a precise correspondence between embedded gropes in 4--manifolds and the failure of the Whitney move in terms of iterated `towers' of Whitney disks. The…

We explain new developments in classical knot theory in 3 and 4~dimensions, i.e. we study knots in 3-space, up to isotopy as well as up to concordance. In dimension~3 we give a geometric interpretation of the Kontsevich integral (joint with Jim Conant), and in dimension 4 we introduce new concordance invariants using v…

In this paper, we prove a conjecture of Friedl and Powell that their Casson-Gordon type invariant of 2-component link with linking number one is actually an obstruction to being height 3.5 Whitney tower/grope concordant to the Hopf Link. The proof employs the notion of solvable cobordism of 3-manifolds with boundary, w…

A geometric characterization of the Arf invariant of a knot in the 3-sphere is given in terms of two kinds of 4-dimensional bordisms, half-gropes and Whitney towers. These types of bordisms have associated complexities class and order which filter the condition of bordism by an embedded annulus, i.e. knot concordance, …

The disk embedding lemma is a technique underlying the topological classification results in 4-manifold topology for good fundamental groups. The purpose of this paper is to develop new tools for disk embedding that work up to s-cobordism, without restrictions on the fundamental group. As an application we show that a …

We introduce a notion of symmetric Whitney tower cobordism between bordered 3-manifolds, aiming at the study of homology cobordism and link concordance. It is motivated by the symmetric Whitney tower approach to slicing knots and links initiated by Cochran, Orr, and Teichner. We give amenable Cheeger-Gromov rho-invaria…

We use topological surgery in dimension four to give sufficient conditions for the zero framed surgery manifold of a 3-component link to be homology cobordant to the 3-torus, which arises from zero framed surgery on the Borromean rings, via a topological homology cobordism preserving the homotopy classes of the meridia…

For any group G, we define a new characteristic series related to the derived series, that we call the torsion-free derived series of G. Using this series and the Cheeger-Gromov rho-invariant, we obtain new real-valued homology cobordism invariants rho_n for closed (4k-1)-dimensional manifolds. For 3-dimensional manifo…

We give a survey of geometric approaches to the topological 4-dimensional surgery and 5-dimensional s-cobordism conjectures, with a focus on the study of surfaces in 4-manifolds. The geometric lemma underlying these conjectures is a statement about smooth immersions of disks and of certain 2-complexes, capped gropes, i…

We study the structure of the exteriors of gropes and Whitney towers in dimension 4, focusing on their fundamental groups. In particular we introduce a notion of unknottedness of gropes and Whitney towers in the 4-sphere. We prove that various modifications of gropes and Whitney towers preserve the unknottedness and do…

In this paper, the easier methods of my thesis are applied to give a simple proof of a theorem of Goussarov. The theorem relates two possible notions of finite type equivalence of knots, links or string links, showing that the resulting filtrations are the same up to a degree shift by a factor of two. This is then appl…

In this article it is proven that if a knot, K, bounds an imbedded grope of class n, then the knot is n/2-trivial in the sense of Gusarov and Stanford. That is, all type n/2 invariants vanish on K. We also give a simple way to construct all knots bounding a grope of a given class. It is further shown that this result i…

The Jacobi identity is the key relation in the definition of a Lie algebra. In the last decade, it also appeared at the heart of the theory of finite type invariants of knots, links and 3-manifolds (and is there called the IHX-relation). In addition, this relation was recently found to arise naturally in a theory of em…

We consider the Grope filtration of the classical knot concordance group that was introduced in a paper of Cochran, Orr and Teichner. Our main result is that successive quotients at each stage in this filtration have infinite rank. We also establish the analogous result for the Grope filtration of the concordance group…

In this note, we calculate the leading term of the rational lift of the Kontsevich integral, introduced by Garoufalidis and Kricker, on the boundary of an embedded grope of class 2n. We observe that it lies in the subspace spanned by connected diagrams of Euler degree 2n-2 which have a bead t-1 on a single edge. This p…

To a special type of grope embedded in 4-space, that we call an admissible grope, we associate a length function for each real number q at least 1. This gives rise to a family of pseudo-metrics d^q, refining the slice genus metric, on the set of concordance classes of knots, as the infimum of the length function taken …

We use a new geometric construction, grope splitting, to give a sharp bound for separation of surfaces in 4-manifolds. We also describe applications of this technique in link-homotopy theory, and to the problem of locating pi_1-null surfaces in 4-manifolds. In our applications to link-homotopy, grope splitting serves a…

This paper continues the study of decompositions of a smooth 4-manifold into two handlebodies with handles of index $\leq2$. Part I gave existence results in terms of spines and chain complexes over the fundamental group of the ambient manifold. Here we assume that one side of a decomposition has larger fundamental gro…

We prove a geometric refinement of Alexander duality for certain 2-complexes, the so-called gropes, embedded into 4-space. This refinement can be roughly formulated as saying that 4-dimensional Alexander duality preserves the disjoint Dwyer filtration. In addition, we give new proofs and extended versions of two lemmas…

We study knots of order 2 in the grope filtration $\{\G_h\}$ and the solvable filtration $\{\F_h\}$ of the knot concordance group. We show that, for any integer $n\ge4$, there are knots generating a $\Z_2^\infty$ subgroup of $\G_n/\G_{n.5}$. Considering the solvable filtration, our knots generate a $\Z_2^\infty$ subgro…

We prove that a Casson tower of height 4 contains a flat embedded disc bounded by the attaching circle, and we prove disc embedding results for height 2 and 3 Casson towers which are embedded into a 4-manifold, with some additional fundamental group assumptions. In the proofs we create a capped grope from a Casson towe…

We give new information about the relationship between the low-dimensional homology of a group and its derived series. This yields information about how the low-dimensional homology of a topological space constrains its fundamental group. Applications are given to detecting when a set of elements of a group generates a…

We introduce a geometric invariant of knots in the three-sphere, called the first-order genus, that is derived from certain 2-complexes called gropes, and we show it is computable for many examples. While computing this invariant, we draw some interesting conclusions about the structure of a general Seifert surface for…

For certain classes of knots we define geometric invariants called higher-order genera. Each of these invariants is a refinement of the slice genus of a knot. We find lower bounds for the higher-order genera in terms of certain von Neumann $ρ$-invariants, which we call higher-order signatures. The higher-order genera o…

The study extends cobordism theory to complex sections, defining and calculating cobordism groups.

Study cobordisms of nested manifolds and their invariants.

The paper introduces a new invariant for cobordism classes of manifolds and extends cobordism groups.

Defines cobordism maps connecting Khovanov and instanton homologies.

The study explores conditions for $h$-cobordisms between smooth 4-manifolds.

Study shows Khovanov homology's relation to decomposable Lagrangian cobordisms.

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

Extends cobordism groups of immersions to projections with new results.

We give complete geometric invariants of cobordisms of fold maps with oriented singular set and cobordisms of even codimensional fold maps. These invariants are given in terms of cobordisms of stably framed manifolds and cobordisms of immersions with prescribed normal bundles defined by the author in his earlier works.

Study exact Lagrangian cobordisms in cotangent bundles, proving bounds on sheaf interleaving distance and shadow distance.

New results on algebraic knots with Brieskorn polynomials.

Study $h$-cobordisms of complexity 2 in 5D, finding obstructions and examples.

Study finds conditions for existence of specific pseudo-Riemannian cobordisms.

We study the problem of defining maps on link Floer homology induced by unoriented link cobordisms. We provide a natural notion of link cobordism, disoriented link cobordism, which tracks the motion of index zero and index three critical points. Then we construct a map on unoriented link Floer homology associated to a …

We study necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of Lorentzian and weak Lorentzian cobordisms between closed smooth manifolds of arbitrary dimension such that the structure group of the frame bundle of the cobordism is $\Spin(1, n)_0$. This extends a result of Gibbons-Hawking on $\Sl(2, \C)$-Lorentzian co…

Using methods inspired from algebraic $K$-theory, we give a new proof of the Genauer fibration sequence, relating the cobordism categories of closed manifolds with cobordism categories of manifolds with boundaries, and of the Bökstedt-Madsen delooping of the cobordism category. Unlike the existing proofs, this approach…

We show that the theory of stable complex $G$-cobordisms, for a torus $G$, is embedded into the theory of stable complex $G$-cobordisms of not necessarily compact manifolds equipped with proper abstract moment maps. Thus the introduction of such non-compact cobordisms in the stable complex $G$-cobordism theory does not…

We study cobordisms and cobordisms rel boundary of PL locally-flat disk knots $D^{n-2}\into D^n$. Cobordisms of disk knots that do not fix the boundary sphere knots are easily classified by the cobordism properties of these boundaries, and any two even-dimensional disk knots with isotopic boundary knots are cobordant r…

Researchers develop methods to construct Lagrangian cobordisms between Legendrian knots.

Periodic Floer homology (PFH) is a Gromov-Floer type invariant for fibered three-manifolds with Hamiltonian structures. The cobordism maps on periodic Floer homology induced by symplectic cobordisms are currently only defined indirectly by using Seiberg-Witten theory. In this paper, we investigate the cobordism maps in…

Paper extends cobordism maps in Khovanov and instanton homologies.