Twisted torus links are given by twisting a subset of strands on a closed braid representative of a torus link. T--links are a natural generalization, given by repeated positive twisting. We establish a one-to-one correspondence between positive braid representatives of Lorenz links and T--links, so Lorenz links and T--links coincide. Using this correspondence, we identify over half of the simplest hyperbolic knots as Lorenz knots. We show that both hyperbolic volume and the Mahler measure of Jones polynomials are bounded for infinite collections of hyperbolic Lorenz links. The correspondence provides unexpected symmetries for both Lorenz links and T-links, and establishes many new results for T-links, including new braid index formulas.
All knots are known to be hyperbolic, satellite, or torus knots, and one important family is Lorenz links, or T-links, which arise from dynamics. However, it remains difficult to determine the geometric type of a Lorenz link from a description via dynamics or as a T-link. In this paper, we consider those T-links that are torus links. We show that T-links obtained by full twists along torus links can never be torus links, aside from a family of cases. This addresses a question of Birman and Kofman.
We describe the Lorenz links generated by renormalizable Lorenz maps with reducible kneading invariant $(K_f^-,K_f^+)=(X,Y)*(S,W)$, in terms of the links corresponding to each factor. This gives one new kind of operation that permits us to generate new knots and links from old. Using this result we obtain explicit formulas for the genus and the braid index of this renormalizable Lorenz knots and links. Then we obtain explicit formulas for sequences of these invariants, associated to sequences of renormalizable Lorenz maps with kneading invariant $(X,Y)*(S,W)^{*n}$, concluding that both grow ex…
In paper "A new twist on Lorenz links" (Journal of Topology 2(2009), 227-248) Joan Birman and Ilya Kofman prove the coincidence of the class of Lorenz links and the class of twisted links. The proof in that work is algebraic. We will identify this class in terms of grid diagrams and provide a transparent geometric argument for Birman-Kofman's result.
Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Peking University（北京大学北京国际数学研究中心）；Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI), The University of Sydney（悉尼大学悉尼数学研究所）；Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas（数学研究中心）
Generalised T-links Represent All Links in the 3-Sphere
Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Peking University（北京大学北京国际数学研究中心）；Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI), The University of Sydney（悉尼大学悉尼数学研究所）；Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas（墨西哥数学研究中心）
Twisted torus knots and links are given by twisting adjacent strands of a torus link. They are geometrically simple and contain many examples of the smallest volume hyperbolic knots. Many are also Lorenz links. We study the geometry of twisted torus links and related generalizations. We determine upper bounds on their hyperbolic volumes that depend only on the number of strands being twisted. We exhibit a family of twisted torus knots for which this upper bound is sharp, and another family with volumes approaching infinity. Consequently, we show there exist twisted torus knots with arbitrarily…
We show that if a split link is obtained from a split link $L$ in $S^3$ by $1/n$-Dehn surgery along a trivial knot $C$, then the link $L\cup C$ is splittable. That is to say, it is impossible to obtain a split link from a split link via a non-trivial twisting. As its corollary, we completely determine when a trivial link is obtained from a trivial link via a twisting.
Twisted links are obtained from a base link by starting with a $n$-braid representation, choosing several ($m$) adjacent strands, and applying one or more twists to the set. Various restrictions may be applied, e.g. the twists may be required to be positive or full twists, or the base braid may be required to have a certain form. The Jones polynomial of full $m$-twisted links have some interesting properties. It is known that when sufficiently many full $m$-twists are added that the coefficients break up into disjoint blocks which are independent of the number of full twists. These blocks are …
We apply the twisting technique that was first introduced in \cite{CK} and later generalized in \cite{QCQ} to obtain an infinite family of adequate, homogeneous or alternative links from a given adequate, homogeneous or alternative link, respectively. Thus we conclude that these three classes of links are infinite.
We use a link invariant defined by Cimasoni-Florens to compute ρ-invariants. This generalizes results of Cochran-Teichner and Friedl on knots to the setting of links. As an application, we prove with only twelve possible exceptions that the twist knots of algebraic order two are linearly independent in the topological concordance group.
We show that for a large class of hyperbolic knots and links, we can determine bounds on the volume of the link complement from combinatorial information given by a link diagram. Specifically, there is a universal constant C such that if a knot or link admits a prime, twist reduced diagram with at least 2 twist regions and at least C crossings per twist region, then the link complement is hyperbolic with volume bounded below by 3.3515 times the number of twist regions in the diagram. C is at most 113.
In this paper we give an explicit formula for the twisted Alexander polynomial of any torus link and show that it is a locally constant function on the $SL(2, \mathbb C)$-character variety. We also discuss similar things for the higher dimensional twisted Alexander polynomial and the Reidemeister torsion.
If the twist numbers of a collection of oriented alternating link diagrams are bounded, then the Alexander polynomials of the corresponding links have bounded euclidean Mahler measure (see Definition 1.2). The converse assertion does not hold. Similarly, if a collection of oriented link diagrams, not necessarily alternating, have bounded twist numbers, then both the Jones polynomials and a parametrization of the 2-variable Homflypt polynomials of the corresponding links have bounded Mahler measure.
We obtain explicit, isometry-invariant integral formulas for twisting, writhing and helicity, and prove the theorem LINK = TWIST + WRITHE on the 3-sphere and in hyperbolic 3-space. We then use these results to derive upper bounds for the helicity of vector fields and lower bounds for the first eigenvalue of the curl operator on subdomains of these two spaces.
A rational knot or link can be put into a standard alternating format which has horizontal and vertical twist sites (double helices). The number and type of these twist sites are determined by terms of next-to-highest $z$-degree in Kauffman's regular isotopy invariant $Λ(a,z)$. In particular, for a knot or link with $c$ crossings, the coefficient of the $z^{c-2}$ term is equal to the number of twist sites in its standard diagram. Furthermore, the coefficients of the $a^{-2}z^{c-2}$ and $a^2z^{c-2}$ terms count the number of left-turning and right-turning twist sites, respectively.
For $D$ a reduced alternating surface link diagram, we bound the twist number of $D$ in terms of the coefficients of a polynomial invariant. To this end, we introduce a generalization of the homological Kauffman bracket defined by Krushkal. Combined with work of Futer, Kalfagianni, and Purcell, this yields a bound for the hyperbolic volume of a class of alternating surface links in terms of these coefficients.
Quasi-alternating links are homologically thin for both Khovanov homology and knot Floer homology. We show that every quasi-alternating link gives rise to an infinite family of quasi-alternating links obtained by replacing a crossing with an alternating rational tangle. Consequently, we show that many pretzel links are quasi-alternating, and we determine the thickness of Khovanov homology for "most" pretzel links with arbitrarily many strands.
We consider knots whose diagrams have a high amount of twisting of multiple strands. By encircling twists on multiple strands with unknotted curves, we obtain a link called a generalized augmented link. Dehn filling this link gives the original knot. We classify those generalized augmented links that are Seifert fibered, and give a torus decomposition for those that are toroidal. In particular, we find that each component of the torus decomposition is either "trivial", in some sense, or homeomorphic to the complement of a generalized augmented link. We show this structure persists under high D…
In this paper we apply the twisted Alexander polynomial to study the fibering and genus detecting problems for oriented links. In particular we generalize a conjecture of Dunfield, Friedl and Jackson on the torsion polynomial of hyperbolic knots to hyperbolic links, and confirm it for an infinite family of hyperbolic 2-bridge links. Moreover we consider a similar problem for parabolic representations of 2-bridge link groups.
We prove that the coefficients of the colored Jones polynomial of alternating links stabilize under increasing the number of twists in the twist regions of the link diagram. This gives us an infinite family of $q$-power series derived from the colored Jones polynomial parametrized by the color and the twist regions of the alternating link diagram.
We consider the double twist link $J(2m+1, 2n+1)$ which is the two-bridge link corresponding to the continued fraction $(2m+1)-1/(2n+1)$. It is known that $J(2m+1, 2n+1)$ has reducible nonabelian $SL_2(\mathbb{C})$-character variety if and only if $m=n$. In this paper we give a formula for the volume of hyperbolic cone-manifolds of $J(2m+1,2m+1)$. We also give a formula for the A-polynomial 2-tuple corresponding to the canonical component of the character variety of $J(2m+1,2m+1)$.
Let $Δ_{L,ρ_n}(t)$ be the twisted Alexander polynomial with respect to the representation given by the composition of the lift of the holonomy representation of a certain hyperbolic link $L$ and the $n$-dimensional irreducible complex representation of $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb C)$. We consider a sequence of $Δ_{L,ρ_n}(t)$ and extract the volume of the complement of $L$ from the asymptotic behaviour of the sequence obtained by evaluating $t=1$ or $t=-1$.
We show that if a knot admits a prime, twist-reduced diagram with at least 4 twist regions and at least 6 crossings per twist region, then every non-trivial Dehn filling of that knot is hyperbolike. A similar statement holds for links. We prove this using two arguments, one geometric and one combinatorial. The combinatorial argument further implies that every link with at least 2 twist regions and at least 6 crossings per twist region is hyperbolic and gives a lower bound for the genus of a link.
Khovanov homology is a bigraded Z-module that categorifies the Jones polynomial. The support of Khovanov homology lies on a finite number of slope two lines with respect to the bigrading. The Khovanov width is essentially the largest horizontal distance between two such lines. We show that it is possible to generate infinite families of links with the same Khovanov width from link diagrams satisfying certain conditions. Consequently, we compute the Khovanov width for all closed 3-braids.
We compute both natural and smooth models for the $SL_2(\mathbb C)$ character varieties of the two component double twist links, an infinite family of two-bridge links indexed as $J(k,l)$. For each $J(k,l)$, the component(s) of the character variety containing characters of irreducible representations are birational to a surface of the form $C\times \mathbb C$ where $C$ is a curve. The same is true of the canonical component. We compute the genus of this curve, and the degree of irrationality of the canonical component. We realize the natural model of the canonical component of the $SL_2(\math…
We show that if {L_n} is any infinite sequence of links with twist number tau(L_n) and with cyclotomic Jones polynomials of increasing span, then lim sup tau(L_n)=infty. This implies that any infinite sequence of prime alternating links with cyclotomic Jones polynomials must have unbounded hyperbolic volume. The main tool is the multivariable twist--bracket polynomial, which generalizes the Kauffman bracket to link diagrams with open twist sites.
Recently, the explicit volume formulae for hyperbolic cone-manifolds, whose underlying space is the 3-sphere and the singular set is the knot $4_1$ and the links $5^2_1$ and $6^2_2$, have been obtained by the second named author and his collaborators. In this paper we explicitly find the hyperbolic volume for cone-manifolds with the link $6^2_3$ as singular set. Trigonometric identities (Tangent, Sine and Cosine Rules) between complex lengths of singular components and cone angles are obtained for an infinite family of two-bridge links containing $5^2_1$ and $6^2_3$.
Given a knot in the three-sphere, is it possible to unknot it by performing a single twist, and if so, what are the possible linking numbers of such a twist? We develop obstructions to unknotting using a twist of a specified linking number. The obstructions we describe are built using classical knot invariants, Casson-Gordon invariants, and Heegaard Floer theory.
We develop a model characterizing all possible knots and links arising from recombination starting with a twist knot substrate, extending previous work of Buck and Flapan. We show that all knot or link products fall into three well-understood families of knots and links, and prove that given a positive integer $n$, the number of product knots and links with minimal crossing number equal to $n$ grows proportionally to $n^5$. In the (common) case of twist knot substrates whose products have minimal crossing number one more than the substrate, we prove that the types of products are tightly presc…
Two Seifert surfaces of links in $S^3$ are said to be twist equivalent if one can be obtained from the other, up to isotopy, by repeatedly performing operations consisting of cutting along an embedded arc, applying a full twist near one copy of the arc, and re-gluing. By using bridge spheres for their boundary links, we provide a new method of distinguishing twist equivalence classes of Seifert surfaces of any given genus. Given a Seifert surface $F$ of a link $L$, we show that the bridge numbers of the boundary links of Seifert surfaces twist equivalent to $F$ are uniformly bounded above by a…
Given a representation of a link group, we introduce a trilinear form, as a topological invariant. We show that, if the link is either hyperbolic or a knot with malnormality, then the trilinear form equals the pairing of the (twisted) triple cup product and the fundamental relative 3-class. Further, we give some examples of the computation.
It was previously shown by the second author that every knot in $S^3$ is ambient isotopic to one component of a two-component, alternating, hyperbolic link. In this paper, we define the alternating volume of a knot $K$ to be the minimum volume of any link $L$ in a natural class of alternating, hyperbolic links such that $K$ is ambient isotopic to a component of $L$. Our main result shows that the alternating volume of a knot is coarsely equivalent to the twist number of a knot.
For any knot T transverse to a given contact structure on a 3-manifold, we exhibit a Legendrian two-component link such that T equals the transverse push-off of one of the link components and contact (+1)-surgery on the link has the same effect as a Lutz twist along T.
We consider in this paper the minimally twisted chain link with 5 components in the 3-sphere, and we analyze the Dehn surgeries on it, namely the Dehn fillings on its exterior M5. The 3-manifold M5 is a nicely symmetric hyperbolic one, filling which one gets a wealth of hyperbolic 3-manifolds having 4 or fewer (including 0) cusps. In view of Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn filling theorem it is then natural to face the problem of classifying all the exceptional fillings on M5, namely those yielding non-hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Here we completely solve this problem, also showing that, thanks to the s…
The hyperbolic volume of a link complement is known to be unchanged when a half-twist is added to a link diagram, and a suitable 3-punctured sphere is present in the complement. We generalize this to the simplicial volume of link complements by analyzing the corresponding toroidal decompositions. We then use it to prove a refined upper bound for the volume in terms of twists of various lengths for links.
We investigate the geometry of hyperbolic knots and links whose diagrams have a high amount of twisting of multiple strands. We find information on volume and certain isotopy classes of geodesics for the complements of these links, based only on a diagram. The results are obtained by finding geometric information on generalized augmentations of these links.
From a pseudo-triangulation with $n$ tetrahedra $T$ of an arbitrary closed orientable connected 3-manifold (for short, {\em a 3D-space}) $M^3$, we present a gem $J '$, inducing $\IS^3$, with the following characteristics: (a) its number of vertices is O(n); (b) it has a set of $p$ pairwise disjoint couples of vertices $\{u_i,v_i\}$, each named {\em a twistor}; (c) in the dual $(J ')^\star$ of $J '$ a twistor becomes a pair of tetrahedra with an opposite pair of edges in common, and it is named {\em a hinge}; (d) in any embedding of $(J ')^\star \subset \IS^3$, the $ε$-neighborhood of each hing…
The $\mathfrak{sl}_3$ colored Jones polynomial $J_λ^{\mathfrak{sl}_3}(L)$ is obtained by coloring the link components with two-row Young diagram $λ$. Although it is difficult to compute $J_λ^{\mathfrak{sl}_3}(L)$ in general, we can calculate it by using Kuperberg's $A_2$ skein relation. In this paper, we show some formulas for twisted two strands colored by one-row Young diagram in $A_2$ web space and compute $J_{(n,0)}^{\mathfrak{sl}_3}(T(2,2m))$ for an oriented $(2,2m)$-torus link. These explicit formulas derives the $\mathfrak{sl}_3$ tail of $T(2,2m)$. They also give explicit descriptions o…
