arXiv research

We investigate the disparity between smooth and topological almost concordance of knots in general 3-manifolds Y. Almost concordance is defined by considering knots in Y modulo concordance in Yx[0,1] and the action of the concordance group of knots in the 3-sphere that ties in local knots. We prove that the trivial fre…

The Mazur pattern acts by the identity up to topological concordance.

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. …

We give infinitely many $2$-component links with unknotted components which are topologically concordant to the Hopf link, but not smoothly concordant to any $2$-component link with trivial Alexander polynomial. Our examples are pairwise non-concordant.

New examples show satellite operations can expand the concordance group in topological knot theory.

Study shows knots can have large genus difference from concordance.

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…

The concordance genus of a knot K is the minimum Seifert genus of all knots smoothly concordant to K. Concordance genus is bounded below by the 4-ball genus and above by the Seifert genus. We give a lower bound for the concordance genus of K coming from the knot Floer complex of K. As an application, we prove that ther…

We generalize an algorithm of Rudolph to establish that every link is topologically concordant to a strongly quasipositive link.

It was shown by Jim Davis that a 2-component link with Alexander polynomial one is topologically concordant to the Hopf link. In this paper, we show that there is a 2-component link with Alexander polynomial one that has unknotted components and is not smoothly concordant to the Hopf link, answering a question of Jim D…

We show that there are links whose individual components are concordant to the unknot, but which are not concordant to any link with unknotted components. We give examples in the topological category, and examples in the smooth category which are topologically slice. We also give generalizations regarding components of…

We construct an infinite family of topologically slice knots that are not smoothly concordant to their reverses. More precisely, if T denotes the concordance group of topologically slice knots and R is the involution of T induced by string reversal, then T/Fix(R) contains an infinitely generated free subgroup. The resu…

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.

For all n > 0 there is a homomorphism from the smooth concordance group of knots in dimension 2n + 1 to an algebraically defined group called the rational algebraic concordance group. This algebraic concordance group splits as a direct sum of groups indexed by polynomials. For n > 1 the homomorphism is injective. This …

In 2016 Levine showed that there exists a knot in a homology 3-sphere which is not smoothly concordant to any knot in the 3-sphere where one allows concordances in any smooth homology cobordism. Whether the same is true if one allows topological concordances is not known. One might hope that such an example might be de…

Smoothly embed 3-manifolds in 5-manifolds, simplifying topological to smooth.

We define an infinite family of linearly independent, integer-valued smooth concordance homomorphisms. Our homomorphisms are explicitly computable and rely on local equivalence classes of knot Floer complexes over the ring $\mathbb{F}[U, V]/(UV=0)$. We compare our invariants to other concordance homomorphisms coming fr…

New invariant defined for unoriented knots, proving no factorization through topological concordance.

We give new examples of 2-component links with linking number one and unknotted components that are topologically concordant to the positive Hopf link, but not smoothly so - in fact they are not smoothly concordant to the positive Hopf link with a knot tied in the first component. Such examples were previously construc…

We give new Casson-Gordon style obstructions for a two-component link to be topologically concordant to the Hopf link.

The knot Floer complex and the concordance invariant $\varepsilon$ can be used to define a filtration on the smooth concordance group. We exhibit an ordered subset of this filtration that is isomorphic to $\mathbb{N} \times \mathbb{N}$ and consists of topologically slice knots.

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…

Study fundamental quandle of ribbon concordances, proving homomorphisms.

We address primary decomposition conjectures for knot concordance groups, which predict direct sum decompositions into primary parts. We show that the smooth concordance group of topologically slice knots has a large subgroup for which the conjectures are true and there are infinitely many primary parts each of which h…

As proved by Hedden and Ording, there exist knots for which the Ozsvath-Szabo and Rasmussen smooth concordance invariants, tau and s, differ. The Hedden-Ording examples have nontrivial Alexander polynomials and are not topologically slice. It is shown in this note that a simple manipulation of the Hedden-Ording example…

This is survey about the classical knot concordance group, prepared for an upcoming handbook of knot theory. Topics include: the basic definitions of concordance; the theory of algebraic concordance as developed by Levine; the theory of Casson-Gordon invariants; applications of topological surgery as developed by Freed…

Let C_T be the subgroup of the smooth knot concordance group generated by topologically slice knots and let C_D be the subgroup generated by knots with trivial Alexander polynomial. We prove the quotient C_T/C_D is infinitely generated, and uncover similar structure in the 3-dimensional rational spin bordism group. Our…

Four-dimensional surgery is used to show that a two component link with Alexander polynomial one is topologically concordant to the Hopf link.

Study shows knots in homology spheres can be topologically equivalent to those in $S^3$.

We conjecture that satellite operations are either constant or have infinite rank in the concordance group. We reduce this to the difficult case of winding number zero satellites, and use $SO(3)$ gauge theory to provide a general criterion sufficient for the image of a satellite operation to generate an infinite rank s…

In this paper we will show that two surfaces of the same genus and homology class in a simply connected 4-manifold are concordant. We will show they are often topologically isotopic when their complements have cyclic fundamental group. Finally, we will show that if they are 0-concordant, then surgery on one is equivale…

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

Given a 3-manifold $Y$ and a free homotopy class in $[S^1,Y]$, we investigate the set of topological concordance classes of knots in $Y \times [0,1]$ representing the given homotopy class. The concordance group of knots in the 3-sphere acts on this set. We show in many cases that the action is not transitive, using two…

New infinite-rank summand found in knot concordance group.

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.

We use the Heegaard-Floer homology correction terms defined by Ozsváth--Szabó to formulate a new obstruction for a knot to be of finite order in the smooth concordance group. This obstruction bears a formal resemblance to that of Casson and Gordon but is sensitive to the difference between the smooth versus topological…

J. Davis showed that the topological concordance class of a link in the 3-sphere is uniquely determined by its Alexander polynomial for 2-component links with Alexander polynomial one. A similar result for knots with Alexander polynomial one was shown earlier by M. Freedman. We prove that these two cases are the only e…

We construct smooth concordance invariants of knots which take the form of piecewise linear maps from [0,1] to R, one for each n greater than or equal to 2. These invariants arise from sl(n) knot cohomology. We verify some properties which are analogous to those of the invariant Upsilon (which arises from knot Floer ho…

We propose and analyze a structure with which to organize the difference between a knot in the 3-sphere bounding a topologically embedded 2-disk in the 4-ball and it bounding a smoothly embedded disk. The n-solvable filtration of the topological knot concordance group, due to Cochran-Orr-Teichner, may be complete in th…

Defines a new homomorphism for strongly invertible knots, proving equivariant algebraic concordance.

We define a filtration of the smooth concordance group based on the genus of representative knots. We use the Heegaard Floer epsilon and Upsilon invariants to prove the quotient groups with respect to this filtration are infinitely generated. Results are applied to three infinite families of topologically slice knots.

We provide new information about the structure of the abelian group of topological concordance classes of knots in $S^3$. One consequence is that there is a subgroup of infinite rank consisting entirely of knots with vanishing Casson-Gordon invariants but whose non-triviality is detected by $L^{(2)}$ signatures.

New equivalence relation for links using cut-diagrams.

We use classical techniques to answer some questions raised by Daniele Celoria about almost-concordance of knots in arbitrary closed $3$-manifolds. We first prove that, given $Y^3 \neq S^3$, for any non-trivial element $g\in π_1(Y)$ there are infinitely many distinct smooth almost-concordance classes in the free homoto…

Extends Milnor's invariants to knots and links in 3-manifolds.

Study on moduli space of metrics with positive scalar curvature.

We establish certain "non-triviality" results for several filtrations of the smooth and topological knot concordance groups. First, as regards the n-solvable filtration of the topological knot concordance group defined by K. Orr, P. Teichner and the first author, we refine the recent non-triviality results of Cochran a…

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…