arXiv research

We establish a fundamental connection between smooth and polygonal knot energies, showing that the Minimum Distance Energy for polygons inscribed in a smooth knot converges to the Moebius Energy of the smooth knot as the polygons converge to the smooth knot. However, the polygons must converge in a ``nice'' way, and th…

Construct divide knots with specific genus properties.

Computed the 4-genus for all 12-crossing prime knots.

Introduces slice knots and concordance, linking to exotic smooth structures.

The abstract proves every knot type can be parametrized by smooth functions and studies limit knot types.

We give infinitely many examples of 2-bridge knots for which the topological and smooth slice genera differ. The smallest of these is the 12-crossing knot $12a255$. These also provide the first known examples of alternating knots for which the smooth and topological genera differ.

New knots found with tough, unsliceable discs.

We define a new smooth concordance homomorphism based on the knot Floer complex and an associated concordance invariant, epsilon. As an application, we show that an infinite family of topologically slice knots are independent in the smooth concordance group.

Smooth figure-eight knot cables have infinite order.

The paper shows conditions under which certain 4-manifolds have no smooth spines.

A regular $n$-gon inscribing a knot is a sequence of $n$ points on a knot, such that the distances between adjacent points are all the same. It is shown that any smooth knot is inscribed by a regular $n$-gon for any $n$.

Many invariants of knots rely upon smoothing the knot at its crossings. To compute them, it is necessary to know how to count the number of connected components the knot diagram is broken into after the smoothing. In this paper, it is shown how to use a modification of a theorem of Zulli together with a modification of…

Smooth knots with odd Conway polynomial terms have inscribed trefoils.

Study on slicing knots in 4-manifolds, focusing on CP^2-slicing numbers.

New knots found that are 4-genus minimal.

We construct two knot invariants. The first knot invariant is a sum constructed using linking numbers. The second is an invariant of flat knots and is a formal sum of flat knots obtained by smoothing pairs of crossings. This invariant can be used in conjunction with other flat invariants, forming a family of invariants…

We establish a number of results about smooth and topological concordance of knots in $S^1\times S^2$. The winding number of a knot in $S^1\times S^2$ is defined to be its class in $H_1(S^1\times S^2;\mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}$. We show that there is a unique smooth concordance class of knots with winding number one. …

Call a smooth knot (or smooth link) in the unit sphere in $\mathbb{C}^2$ analytic (respectively, smoothly analytic) if it bounds a complex curve (respectively, a smooth complex curve) in the complex ball. Let $K$ be a smoothly analytic knot. For a small tubular neighbourhood of $K$ we give a sharp lower bound for the 4…

Smooth knots can be embedded into a specific Menger continuum.

Study Lagrangian zigzag cobordisms for Legendrian knots, comparing to smooth concordance.

Knot lattice homology invariant of smooth knot type in rational homology spheres.

By studying the Heegaard Floer homology of the preimage of a knot K in S^3 inside its double branched cover, we develop simple obstructions to K having finite order in the classical smooth concordance group. As an application, we prove that all 2-bridge knots of crossing number at most 12 for which the smooth concordan…

New example shows figure eight knot not smoothly concordant but homology cobordant.

This paper contains the results of efforts to determine values of the smooth and the topological slice genus of 11- and 12-crossing knots. Upper bounds for these genera were produced by using a computer to search for genus one concordances between knots. For the topological slice genus further upper bounds were produce…

Let P be a knot in an unknotted solid torus (i.e. a satellite operator or pattern), K a knot in S^3 and P(K) the satellite of K with pattern P. For any satellite operator P, this correspondence gives a function P : C -> C on the set of smooth concordance classes of knots. We give examples of winding number one satellit…

New findings on knots that are both topologically and rationally slice.

For a given smooth $2$-knot in $S^4$, we relate the existence of a smooth Seifert hypersurface of a certain class to the existence of irreducible $SU(2)$-representations of its knot group. For example, we see that any smooth $2$-knot having the Poincaré homology $3$-sphere as a Seifert hypersurface has at least four i…

Given knots K and J, one can ask whether a single smoothing of a crossing in a diagram for K can convert it into a diagram for J. As an interesting example, Zekovic discovered that the torus knot T(2,5) can be converted into T(2,-5) with a single smoothing. On the other hand, Moore and Vasquez have shown that among tor…

New homomorphism from Khovanov homology for knot concordance.

Legendrian knots can be represented by projections with multi-crossings.

Smooth knots in complex hyperbolic plane limit sets to chains or R-circles.

The abstract discusses detecting knotted spheres through their traces in high dimensions.

The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of Ozsvath and Szabo's Heegaard-Floer theory, we show the existence of an infinite sub…

Any knot in a solid torus, called a pattern or satellite operator, acts on knots in the 3-sphere via the satellite construction. We introduce a generalization of satellite operators which form a group (unlike traditional satellite operators), modulo a generalization of concordance. This group has an action on the set o…

From Furuta's $\frac{10}{8}$ theorem, we derive a smooth slicing obstruction for knots in $S^3$ using a spin $4$-manifold whose boundary is $0$-surgery on a knot. We show that this obstruction is able to detect torsion elements in the smooth concordance group and find topologically slice knots which are not smoothly sl…

The $n$-skeleton of the canonical cubulation $\cal C$ of $\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$ into unit cubes is called the {\it canonical scaffolding} ${\cal{S}}$. In this paper, we prove that any smooth, compact, closed, $n$-dimensional submanifold of $\mathbb{R}^{n+2}$ with trivial normal bundle can be continuously isotoped by an amb…

We discuss differences between genera of smooth and locally-flat non-orientable surfaces in the 4-ball with boundary a given torus knot or 2-bridge knot. In particular, we establish that a result by Batson on the smooth non-orientable 4-genus of torus knots does not hold in the locally-flat category. We further show th…

We study the effect of satellite operations on the Upsilon invariant of Ozsvath-Stipsicz-Szabo. We obtain results concerning when a knot and its satellites are independent; for example, we show that the set $\{D_{2^i,1}\}_{i=1}^\infty$ is a basis for an infinite rank summand of the group of smooth concordance classes o…

Computational topology is a vibrant contemporary subfield and this article integrates knot theory and mathematical visualization. Previous work on computer graphics developed a sequence of smooth knots that were shown to converge point wise to a piecewise linear (PL) approximant. This is extended to isotopic convergenc…

We show that the torus knot $T_{4,9}$ bounds a smooth Möbius band in the $4$-ball, giving a counterexample to Batson's non-orientable analogue of Milnor's conjecture on the smooth slice genera of torus knots.

We extend the classical definition of {\it width} to higher dimensional, smooth codimension 2 knots and show in each dimension there are knots of arbitrarily large width.

Calegari's 4-spheres from fibered knots are proven standard.

There is an infinitely generated free subgroup of the smooth knot concordance group with the property that no nontrivial element in this subgroup can be represented by an alternating knot. This subgroup has the further property that every element is represented by a topologically slice knot.

Characterizes values of slice-torus invariants related to knot genus.

In an earlier work, we introduced a family of t-modified knot Floer homologies, defined by modifying the construction of knot Floer homology HFK-minus. The resulting groups were then used to define concordance homomorphisms indexed by t in [0,2]. In the present work we elaborate on the special case t=1, and call the co…

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.

The surgery unknotting number of a Legendrian link is defined as the minimal number of particular oriented surgeries that are required to convert the link into a Legendrian unknot. Lower bounds for the surgery unknotting number are given in terms of classical invariants of the Legendrian link. The surgery unknotting nu…

Paper explores using 0-surgery to find exotic 4-manifolds.