arXiv research

Dehn surgery on knots in 3-manifolds rarely results in surface fibered manifolds.

Researchers find braid words for knots yielding prism manifolds.

New research shows that many slopes are characterizing for satellite knots.

Berge introduced knots that are primitive/primitive with respect to the genus 2 Heegaard surface, $F$, in $S^3$; surgery on such knots at the surface slope yields a lens space. Later Dean described a similar class of knots that are primitive/Seifert with respect to $F$; surgery on these knots at the surface slope yield…

This paper constructs Seifert-fibered Dehn surgeries for hyperbolic tunnel-number-one knots.

Study slopes in 3-manifolds, proving conjectures about knots.

We use sutured manifold theory, essential laminations and essential branched surfaces to establish the upper bounds of distances between certain types of nonsimple Dehn surgery slopes. This is the revised version of an earlier preprint {\it Dehn surgery and simple manifolds.}

The study bounds exceptional surgeries for hyperbolic knots.

Concerning the set of exceptional surgery slopes for a hyperbolic knot, Lackenby and Meyerhoff proved that the maximal cardinality is 10 and the maximal diameter is 8. Their proof is computer-aided in part, and both bounds are achieved simultaneously. In this note, it is observed that the diameter bound 8 implies the m…

Let $M_λ$ be the $λ$-component Milnor link. For $λ\ge 3$, we determine completely when a finite slope surgery along $M_λ$ yields a lens space including $S^3$ and $S^1\times S^2$, where {\it finite slope surgery} implies that a surgery coefficient of every component is not $\infty$. For $λ=3$ (i.e.\ the Borromean rings)…

The study calculates and analyzes alternating surgeries for various knots.

Proves rational slopes characterize knot 5_2, except for integers.

Certain torus knots have infinitely many slopes that do not uniquely identify them.

New slopes identified for torus knots, improving previous results.

For a hyperbolic knot in the 3-sphere, at most finitely many Dehn surgeries yield non-hyperbolic 3-manifolds. As a typical case of such an exceptional surgery, a toroidal surgery is one that yields a closed 3-manifold containing an incompressible torus. The slope corresponding to a toroidal surgery, called a toroidal s…

The study bounds slopes for Dehn fillings of two-bridge knots with hyperbolic representations.

Unique surgery descriptions found for knots in 3-manifolds.

New surgery exact triangles in Heegaard Floer homology for rational slopes.

Let $F$ be a proper essential immersed surface in a hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ with boundary disjoint from a torus boundary component $T$ of $M$. Let $α$ be the set of coannular slopes of $F$ on $T$. The main theorem of the paper shows that there is a constant $K$ and a finite set of slopes $Λ$ on $T$, such that if $β$ …

We show that on a hyperbolic knot $K$ in $S^3$, the distance between any two finite surgery slopes is at most two and consequently there are at most three nontrivial finite surgeries. Moreover in case that $K$ admits three nontrivial finite surgeries, $K$ must be the pretzel knot $P(-2,3,7)$. In case that $K$ admits tw…

We give a complete classification of toroidal Seifert fibered surgeries on alternating knots. Precisely, we show that if an alternating knot admits a toroidal Seifert fibered surgery, then the knot is either the trefoil knot and the surgery slope is zero, or the connected sum of a (2,p)-torus knot and a (2,q)-torus kno…

Study tangle equations linking enzyme actions to knot theory.

A non-trivial slope $r$ on a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is called a characterizing slope if whenever the result of $r$-surgery on a knot $K'$ is orientation preservingly homeomorphic to the result of $r$-surgery on $K$, then $K'$ is isotopic to $K$. Ni and Zhang ask: for any hyperbolic knot $K$, is a slope $r = p/q$ with $|p| +…

3-manifolds foliar if surfaces minimize Thurston norm, leading to taut foliations.

Which slopes can or cannot appear as Seifert fibered slopes for hyperbolic knots in the 3-sphere S^3? It is conjectured that if r-surgery on a hyperbolic knot in S^3 yields a Seifert fiber space, then r is an integer. We show that for each integer n, there exists a tunnel number one, hyperbolic knot K_n in S^3 such tha…

Proves irreducible SU(2) representations for 3-surgery knots.

Persistently foliar knots have a unique foliation property under certain surgeries.

A slope $\frac pq$ is called a characterizing slope for a given knot $K_0$ in $S^3$ if whenever the $\frac pq$-surgery on a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is homeomorphic to the $\frac pq$-surgery on $K_0$ via an orientation preserving homeomorphism, then $K=K_0$. In this paper we try to find characterizing slopes for torus knots $…

The paper finds left orderable slopes for specific double twist knots.

Suppose F is a compact orientable surface, K is a knot in F x I, and N is the 3-manifold obtained by some non-trivial surgery on K. If F x {0} compresses in N, then there is an annulus in F x I with one end K and the other end an essential simple closed curve in F x {0}. Moreover, the end of the annulus at K determines…

Let r_m and r_M be the least and greatest finite boundary slopes of a hyperbolic knot K in S^3. We show that any cyclic surgery slopes of K must lie in the interval (r_m - 1/2, r_M + 1/2).

Cosmetic surgeries on pretzel knots are unique.

The study finds bounds on characterizing slopes for all knots.

This paper proves a theorem about Dehn surgery using a new theorem about PSL(2, C) character varieties. Confirming a conjecture of Boyer and Zhang, this paper shows that a small hyperbolic knot in a homotopy sphere having a non-trivial cyclic slope r has an incompressible surface with non-integer boundary slope strictl…

A slope $p/q$ is a characterizing slope for a knot $K$ in $S^3$ if the oriented homeomorphism type of $p/q$-surgery on $K$ determines $K$ uniquely. We show that for each torus knot its set of characterizing slopes contains all but finitely many non-integer slopes. This generalizes work of Ni and Zhang who established s…

This is an expository paper, in which we give a summary of some of the joint work of John Luecke and the author on Dehn surgery. We consider the situation where we have two Dehn fillings $M(α)$ and $M(β)$ on a given 3-manifold $M$, each containing a surface that is either essential or a Heegaard surface. We show how a …

We show that if a Montesinos knot admits a Dehn surgery yielding a toroidal Seifert fibered 3-manifold, then the knot is the trefoil knot and the surgery slope is 0.

We describe an algorithm for computing boundary slopes of 2-bridge links. As an example, we work out the slopes of the links obtained by 1/k surgery on one component of the Borromean rings. A table of all boundary slopes of all 2-bridge links with 10 or less crossings is also included.

Let K be a knot in the 3-sphere. A slope p/q is said to be characterising for K if whenever p/q surgery on K is homeomorphic, via an orientation-preserving homeomorphism, to p/q surgery on another knot K' in the 3-sphere, then K and K' are isotopic. It was an old conjecture of Gordon, proved by Kronheimer, Mrowka, Ozsv…

Study on reducing surgeries on knots, developing thickness and genus bounds.

We study knots in $S^3$ with infinitely many $SU(2)$-cyclic surgeries, which are Dehn surgeries such that every representation of the resulting fundamental group into $SU(2)$ has cyclic image. We show that for every such nontrivial knot $K$, its set of $SU(2)$-cyclic slopes is bounded and has a unique limit point, whic…

In this paper, we prove that there are no truly cosmetic surgeries on genus one classical knots. If the two surgery slopes have the same sign, we give the only possibilities of reflectively cosmetic surgeries. The result is an application of Heegaard Floer theory and number theory.

We use the LMO invariant to find constraints for a knot to admit a purely or reflectively cosmetic surgery. We also get a constraint for knots to admit a Lens space surgery, and some information for characterizing slopes.

The study characterizes slopes for hyperbolic knots and Whitehead doubles.

New quantum obstructions prevent purely cosmetic surgeries on knots.

This paper completes proofs for left orderable slopes of double twist knots.

New proof for a knot type not admitting certain surgeries.

Study bounds on cusp volumes of alternating knots on surfaces.