arXiv research

Study classifies twist knots with maximal self-linking number in S^3.

We analyze transverse doubled knots in the standard contact 3-space by using spanned clasp disks. As applications, we will estimate their self-linking number and furthermore we will show that in many cases, transverse twist knots with the maximal self-linking number are unique up to transverse isotopy.

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 give criteria for an invariant of lens space links to bound the maximal self-linking number in certain tight contact lens spaces. As a corollary we extend the Franks-Williams-Morton inequality to the setting of lens spaces.

The study establishes a link between fibered links and their concordance invariants.

New examples show inequalities can be sharp even when self-linking and genus differ.

We review a braid theoretic self-linking number formula and study its applications.

We construct a Seifert surface for a given null-homologous transverse link in a contact manifold that is compatible with a planar open book decomposition, then obtain a formula of the self-linking number. It extends Bennequin's self-linking number formula for braids in the standard contact 3-sphere.

We find a self-linking number formula for a given null-homologous transverse link in a contact manifold that is compatible with either an annulus or a pair of pants open book decomposition. It extends Bennequin's self-linking formula for a braid in the standard contact $3$-sphere.

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 …

We prove that a version of the Thurston-Bennequin inequality holds for Legendrian and transverse links in a rational homology contact 3-sphere $(M,ξ)$, whenever $ξ$ is tight. More specifically, we show that the self-linking number of a transverse link $T$ in $(M,ξ)$, such that the boundary of its tubular neighbourhood …

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…

We introduce the self-linking number of a smooth closed curve in R^n with respect to a 3-dimensional vector bundle over the curve, provided that some regularity conditions are satisfied. When n=3, this construction gives the classical self-linking number of a closed embedded curve with non-vanishing curvature. We also …

We show that every quasipositive link has a quasipositive minimal braid representative, partially resolving a question posed by Orevkov. These quasipositive minimal braids are used to show that the maximal self-linking number of a quasipositive link is bounded below by the negative of the minimal braid index, with equa…

We prove that a nicely fibered link (by which we mean the binding of an open book) in a tight contact manifold $(M,ξ)$ with zero Giroux torsion has a transverse representative realizing the Bennequin bound if and only if the contact structure it supports (since it is also the binding of an open book) is $ξ.$ This gives…

We give an explicit formula to compute the rotation number of a nullhomologous Legendrian knot in contact (1/n)-surgery diagrams along Legendrian links and obtain a corresponding result for the self-linking number of transverse knots. Moreover, we extend the formula by Ding-Geiges-Stipsicz for computing the d3-invarian…

We prove a generalization of the Jones-Kawamuro conjecture that relates the self-linking number and the braid index of closed braids, for planar open books with certain additional conditions and modifications. We show that our result is optimal in some sense by giving several counter examples for naive generalizations …

Characterizes diagrams achieving Morton-Franks-Williams inequality for positive knots and links.

The Gauss self-linking integral of an unframed knot is not a knot invariant, but it can be turned into an invariant by adding a correction term which requires adding extra structure to the knot. We collect the different definitions/theorems/proofs concerning this correction term, most of which are well-known (at least …

Defines Vassiliev complexity measures for open and closed curves in 3D space.

Random walks and polygons are used to model polymers. In this paper we consider the extension of writhe, self-linking number and linking number to open chains. We then study the average writhe, self-linking and linking number of random walks and polygons over the space of configurations as a function of their length. W…

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…

We define an invariant of transverse links in the standard contact 3-sphere as a distinguished element of the Khovanov homology of the link. The quantum grading of this invariant is the self-linking number of the link. For knots, this gives a bound on the self-linking number in terms of Rasmussen's invariant s(K). We p…

Curves with constant curvature are flexible and can be deformed.

The number $|K|$ of non-isotopic framed knots that correspond to a given unframed knot $K\subset S^3$ is infinite. This follows from the existence of the self-linking number $\slk$ of a zerohomologous framed knot. We use the approach of Vassiliev-Goussarov invariants to construct ``affine self-linking numbers'' that ar…

We classify transverse Hopf links in the standard contact 3-space up to transverse isotopy in terms of their components' self-linking number.

We construct an invariant of parametrized generic real algebraic surfaces in RP^3 which generalizes the Brown invariant of immersed surfaces from smooth topology. The invariant is constructed using the self intersection, which is a real algebraic curve with points of three local characters: the intersection of two real…

Let c be a periodic Reeb orbit on the boundary S of a compact star-shaped domain C in R4. We show that if there is an immersed symplectic disc f in C with boundary c then the self-linking number lk(c) of c equals 2 tan(f)-1 where tan(f) is the tangential self-intersection number of f. We also show that if C is convex a…

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 …

Given a closed manifold M, we prove the upper bound of (n+d)/2 for the length of a product of systoles that can form a curvature-free lower bound for the total volume of M, in the spirit of M. Gromov's systolic inequalities. Here n is the dimension of M, while d is the is the cohomological dimension of its fundamental …

We exhibit pairs of transverse knots with the same self-linking number that are not transversely isotopic, using the recently defined knot Floer homology invariant for transverse knots and some algebraic refinements of it.

In 1982 Louis Kauffman conjectured that if a knot in the 3-sphere is a slice knot then on any Seifert surface for that knot there exists a homologically essential simple closed curve of self-linking zero which is itself a slice knot, or at least has Arf invariant zero. Since that time, considerable evidence has been am…

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.

Relative self-linking and linking "numbers" for pairs of knots in oriented 3-manifolds are defined in terms of intersection invariants of immersed surfaces in 4-manifolds. The resulting concordance invariants generalize the usual homological notion of linking by taking into account the fundamental group of the ambient …

We study open book foliations on surfaces in 3-manifolds, and give applications to contact geometry of dimension 3. We prove a braid-theoretic formula of the self-linking number of transverse links, which reveals an unexpected link to the Johnson-Morita homomorphism in mapping class group theory. We also give an altern…

We generalize the Morton-Franks-Williams inequality to the colored $\mathfrak{sl}(N)$ link homology defined in arXiv:0907.0695, which gives infinitely many new bounds for the braid index and the self linking number. A key ingredient of our proof is a composition product for the general MOY graph polynomial, which gener…

We establish some inequalities about the Khovanov-Rozansky cohomologies of braids. These give new upper bounds of the self-linking numbers of transversal links in standard contact $S^3$ which is sharper than the well known bound given by the HOMFLY polynomial. We also introduce a sequence of transversal link invariants…

We construct a new inductive basis of the Birman-Murakami-Wenzl algebra. Using it, we provide a new proof of the existence of the Markov trace on the BMW algebras affording the two-variable Kauffman polynomial. We prove also that all the transverse Markov traces on the BMW algebras are determined by the self-linking nu…

We investigate the properties of knots in S^3 which bound Klein bottles, such that a pushoff of the knot has zero linking number with the knot, i.e. has zero framing. This is motivated by the many results in the literature regarding slice knots of genus one, for example, the existence of homologically essential zero se…

For a 3-manifold $M$ with boundary, we study the Kauffman module with indeterminate equal to $-1+ε$ where $ε^2=0$. We conjecture an explicit relation between this module and the Reidemeister torsion of $M$ which we prove in particular cases. As a maybe useful tool, we then introduce a notion of twisted self-linking and…

We study contact manifolds that arise as cyclic branched covers of transverse knots in the standard contact 3-sphere. We discuss properties of these contact manifolds and describe them in terms of open books and contact surgeries. In many cases we show that such branched covers are contactomorphic for smoothly isotopic…

In view of the self-linking invariant, the number $|K|$ of framed knots in $S^3$ with given underlying knot $K$ is infinite. In fact, the second author previously defined affine self-linking invariants and used them to show that $|K|$ is infinite for every knot in an orientable manifold unless the manifold contains a c…

Study finds non-isotopic transverse tori in Engel 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…

For any two disjoint oriented circles embedded into the 3-dimensional real projective space, we construct a 3-dimensional configuration space and its map to the projective space such that the linking number of the circles is the half of the degree of the map. Similar interpretations are given for the linking number of …

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 study cosmetic contact surgeries along transverse knots in the standard contact 3-sphere, i.e. contact surgeries that yield again the standard contact 3-sphere. The main result is that we can exclude non-trivial cosmetic contact surgeries along all transverse knots not isotopic to the transverse unknot with self-lin…

We prove the quantum filtration on the Khovanov-Rozansky link cohomology H_p with a general degree (n+1) monic potential polynomial p(x) is invariant under Reidemeister moves, and construct a spectral sequence converging to H_p that is invariant under Reidemeister moves, whose E_1 term is isomorphic to the Khovanov-Roz…