If a knot K in S^3 admits a pair of truly cosmetic surgeries, we show that the surgery slopes are either ±2 or ±1/q for some value of q that is explicitly determined by the knot Floer homology of K. Moreover, in the former case the genus of K must be 2, and in the latter case there is a bound relating q to the genus and the Heegaard Floer thickness of K. As a consequence, we show that the cosmetic crossing conjecture holds for alternating knots (or more generally, Heegaard Floer thin knots) with genus not equal to 2. We also show that the conjecture holds for any knot K for which each prime summand of K has at most 16 crossings; our techniques rule out cosmetic surgeries in this setting except for slopes ±1 and ±2 on a small number of knots, and these remaining examples can be checked by comparing hyperbolic invariants. These results make use of the surgery formula for Heegaard Floer homology, which has already proved to be a powerful tool for obstructing cosmetic surgeries; we get stronger obstructions than previously known by considering the full graded theory. We make use of a new graphical interpretation of knot Floer homology and the surgery formula in terms of immersed curves, which makes the grading information we need easier to access.
more »
« less
The genus 1 bridge number of satellite knots
Abstract Let $$T$$ be a satellite knot, link, or spatial graph in a 3-manifold $$M$$ that is either $S^3$ or a lens space. Let $$\b_0$$ and $$\b_1$$ denote genus 0 and genus 1 bridge number, respectively. Suppose that $$T$$ has a companion knot $$K$$ (necessarily not the unknot) and wrapping number $$\omega$$ with respect to $$K$$. When $$K$$ is not a torus knot, we show that $$\b_1(T)\geq \omega \b_1(K)$$. There are previously known counter-examples if $$K$$ is a torus knot. Along the way, we generalize and give a new proof of Schubert's result that $$\b_0(T) \geq \omega \b_0(K)$$. We also prove versions of the theorem applicable to when $$T$$ is a "lensed satellite" and when there is a torus separating components of $$T$$.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2104022
- PAR ID:
- 10629801
- Publisher / Repository:
- Journal of the London Mathematical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the London Mathematical Society
- Volume:
- 112
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0024-6107
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- bridge number knot satellite knot Heegaard surface lens space
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Kronheimer and Mrowka asked whether the difference between the four-dimensional clasp number and the slice genus can be arbitrarily large. This question is answered affirmatively by studying a knot invariant derived from equivariant singular instanton theory, and which is closely related to the Chern-Simons functional. This also answers a conjecture of Livingston about slicing numbers. Also studied is the singular instanton Frøyshov invariant of a knot. If defined with integer coefficients, this gives a lower bound for the unoriented slice genus, and is computed for quasi-alternating and torus knots. In contrast, for certain other coefficient rings, the invariant is identified with a multiple of the knot signature. This result is used to address a conjecture by Poudel and Saveliev about traceless SU(2) representations of torus knots. Further, for a concordance between knots with non-zero signature, it is shown that there is a traceless representation of the concordance complement which restricts to non-trivial representations of the knot groups. Finally, some evidence towards an extension of the slice-ribbon conjecture to torus knots is provided.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT For $$B \subseteq \mathbb F_q^m$$, the nth affine extremal number of B is the maximum cardinality of a set $$A \subseteq \mathbb F_q^n$$ with no subset, which is affinely isomorphic to B. Furstenberg and Katznelson proved that for any $$B \subseteq \mathbb F_q^m$$, the nth affine extremal number of B is $o(q^n)$ as $$n \to \infty$$. By counting affine homomorphisms between subsets of $$\mathbb F_q^n$$, we derive new bounds and give new proofs of some previously known bounds for certain affine extremal numbers. At the same time, we establish corresponding supersaturation results. We connect these bounds to certain Ramsey-type numbers in vector spaces over finite fields. For $$s,t \geq 1$$, let $$R_q(s,t)$$ denote the minimum n such that in every red–blue coloring of the one-dimensional subspaces of $$\mathbb F_q^n$$, there is either a red s-dimensional subspace or a blue t-dimensional subspace of $$\mathbb F_q^n$$. The existence of these numbers is a special case of a well-known theorem of Graham, Leeb and Rothschild. We improve the best-known upper bounds on $$R_2(2,t)$$, $$R_3(2,t)$$, $$R_2(t,t)$$ and $$R_3(t,t)$$.more » « less
-
Abstract Let $$M$$ be a compact 3-manifold and $$\Gamma =\pi _1(M)$$. Work by Thurston and Culler–Shalen established the $${\operatorname{\textrm{SL}}}_2({\mathbb{C}})$$ character variety $$X(\Gamma )$$ as fundamental tool in the study of the geometry and topology of $$M$$. This is particularly the case when $$M$$ is the exterior of a hyperbolic knot $$K$$ in $S^3$. The main goals of this paper are to bring to bear tools from algebraic and arithmetic geometry to understand algebraic and number theoretic properties of the so-called canonical component of $$X(\Gamma )$$, as well as distinguished points on the canonical component, when $$\Gamma $$ is a knot group. In particular, we study how the theory of quaternion Azumaya algebras can be used to obtain algebraic and arithmetic information about Dehn surgeries, and perhaps of most interest, to construct new knot invariants that lie in the Brauer groups of curves over number fields.more » « less
-
Many well studied knots can be realized as positive braid knots where the braid word contains a positive full twist; we say that such knots are twist positive. Some important families of knots are twist positive, including torus knots, 1-bridge braids, algebraic knots, and Lorenz knots. We prove that if a knot is twist positive, the braid index appears as the third exponent in its Alexander polynomial. We provide a few applications of this result. After observing that most known examples of L-space knots are twist positive, we prove: if K is a twist positive L-space knot, the braid index and bridge index of K agree. This allows us to provide evidence for Baker’s reinterpretation of the slice-ribbon conjecture: that every smooth concordance class contains at most one fibered, strongly quasipositive knot. In particular, we provide the first example of an infinite family of positive braid knots which are distinct in concordance, and where, as g tends to infinity, the number of hyperbolic knots of genus g gets arbitrarily large. Finally, we collect some evidence for a few new conjectures, including the following: the braid and bridge indices agree for any L-space knot.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

