arXiv research

We prove surfaces are unknotted with specific properties.

Theory is developed for linear-quadratic at infinity generating families for Legendrian knots in R^3. It is shown that the unknot with maximal Thurston--Bennequin invariant of -1 has a unique linear-quadratic at infinity generating family, up to fiber-preserving diffeomorphism and stabilization. From this, invariant ge…

New obstruction found for smoothability of certain 4-manifolds.

Let F be R or C, d the dimension of F over R. Denote by P(F) either the affine plane A(F) or the hyperbolic plane H(F) over F. An arrangement L of k lines in P(F) (pairwise non-parallel in the hyperbolic case) has a link at infinity K(L) comprising k unknotted (d-1)-spheres in the (2d-1)-sphere, whose topology reflects…

Study of Gordian graphs' behavior at infinity for various local moves.

An unknotting tunnel in a 3-manifold with boundary is a properly embedded arc, the complement of an open neighborhood of which is a handlebody. A geodesic with endpoints on the cusp boundary of a hyperbolic 3-manifold and perpendicular to the cusp boundary is called a vertical geodesic. Given a vertical geodesic in a h…

Any one-cusped hyperbolic manifold M with an unknotting tunnel tau is obtained by Dehn filling a cusp of a two-cusped hyperbolic manifold. In the case where M is obtained by "generic" Dehn filling, we prove that tau is isotopic to a geodesic, and characterize whether tau is isotopic to an edge in the canonical decompos…

We give a general treatment of the somewhat unfamiliar operation on manifolds called Connected Sum at Infinity, or CSI for short. A driving ambition has been to make the geometry behind the well definition and basic properties of CSI as clear and elementary as possible. CSI then yields a very natural and elementary pro…

New number bounds knot complexity, including unknotting and crosscap numbers.

Lee spectral sequence bounds unknotting number, proving Knight Move Conjecture for small knots.

Three hard diagrams of the unknot require extra crossings to simplify.

Agent finds unknotting sequences for complex knots.

We consider pairs (X,Y) where X is a compact, locally CAT(-1) space, and Y is a totally geodesic subspace. The inclusion induces an embedding of the boundaries at infinity of the universal covers; we focus on the case where these are spheres whose dimensions differ by 2. We show that if the embedding is tame, then it i…

We show that an $(n+1)$-bridge sphere for the unknot is a topologically minimal surface of index at most $n$.

We prove the perhaps surprising result that given any three polygonal unknots in $\R^3$, then we may form the Borromean rings out of them through rigid motions of $\R^3$ applied to the individual components together with possible scaling of the components. We also prove that if at least two of the unknots are planar, t…

Using unknotting number, we introduce a link diagram invariant of Hass and Nowik type, which changes at most by 2 under a Reidemeister move. As an application, we show that a certain infinite sequence of diagrams of the trivial two-component link need quadratic number of Reidemeister moves for being unknotted with resp…

Given a knot K we introduce a new invariant coming from the Blanchfield pairing and we show that it gives a lower bound on the unknotting number of K. This lower bound subsumes the lower bounds given by the Levine-Tristram signatures, by the Nakanishi index and it also subsumes the Lickorish obstruction to the unknotti…

Spatial graphs can be unknotted with region crossing changes.

New bounds on knot unknotting numbers using involutive homology.

Study confirms a knot's crosscap number equals its splice-unknotting number for alternating knots.

Study disproves conjecture about knot transformations.

New method for knot closures from 1-tangles and annulus twists.

Positive braids minimize knot untangling steps.

Proving NP-hardness of unknotting and related link problems.

The unknotting number of a knot is the minimum number of crossings one must change to turn that knot into the unknot. We work with a generalization of unknotting number due to Mathieu-Domergue, which we call the untwisting number. The p-untwisting number is the minimum number (over all diagrams of a knot) of full twist…

All knots with unknotting number ≤ 21 are smoothly slice in K3 surface.

Ascending numbers are determined for 64 knots with at most n=10 crossings. After proving the theorem about the signature of alternating knot families, we distinguished all families of knots obtained from generating alternating knots with at most 10 crossings, for which the unknotting number can be confirmed by using th…

Study on hard Legendrian unknots using normal rulings.

We consider a knot homotopy as a cylinder in 4-space. An ordinary triple point $p$ of the cylinder is called {\em coherent} if all three branches intersect at $p$ pairwise with the same index. A {\em triple unknotting} of a classical knot $K$ is a homotopy which connects $K$ with the trivial knot and which has as singu…

We construct and prove a diagrammatic version of the Duflo isomorphism between the invariant subalgebra of the symmetric algebra of a Lie algebra and the center of the universal enveloping algebra. This version implies the original for metrized Lie algebras (Lie algebras with an invariant non-degenerate bilinear form).…

Study shows unknotting number of certain virtual torus knots equals standard torus knot's unknotting number.

New SCI index bounds unknotting framed unknots.

There is a positive constant $c_1$ such that for any diagram $D$ representing the unknot, there is a sequence of at most $2^{c_1 n}$ Reidemeister moves that will convert it to a trivial knot diagram, $n$ is the number of crossings in $D$. A similar result holds for elementary moves on a polygonal knot $K$ embedded in t…

We consider a natural model of random knotting- choose a knot diagram at random from the finite set of diagrams with n crossings. We tabulate diagrams with 10 and fewer crossings and classify the diagrams by knot type, allowing us to compute exact probabilities for knots in this model. As expected, most diagrams with 1…

Study on unknotted gropes and Whitney towers in 4-sphere.

The paper explores different types of knot unknotting numbers using various local moves.

New knot invariant detects unknots.

We study Kauffman's model of folded ribbon knots: knots made of a thin strip of paper folded flat in the plane. The ribbonlength is the length to width ratio of such a ribbon, and it turns out that the way the ribbon is folded influences the ribbonlength. We give an upper bound of $n\cot(π/n)$ for the ribbonlength of $…

Proves Jones unknot conjecture for knots up to 23 crossings.

Study unknotting numbers of prime θ-curves up to 7 crossings.

A new definition of umbilic points at infinity for polynomial surfaces.

Shows large unknotting number for simple knots.

Paper introduces unknotting index for virtual knots.

New invariant measures how many twists are needed to unknot welded knots.

We prove that if an alternating knot has unknotting number one, then there exists an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram. This is done by showing that the obstruction to unknotting number one developed by Greene in his work on alternating 3-braid knots is sufficient to identify all unknotting number one alte…

Tollefson described a variant of normal surface theory for 3-manifolds, called Q-theory, where only the quadrilateral coordinates are used. Suppose $M$ is a triangulated, compact, irreducible, boundary-irreducible 3-manifold. In Q-theory, if $M$ contains an essential surface, then the projective solution space has an e…

Grid homology shows knot unknotting lower bound.

The paper proves mapping class groups of closed surfaces are simply connected at infinity.