The nonorientable four-ball genus of a knot K is the smallest first Betti number of any smoothly embedded, nonorientable surface F in B^4 bounding K. In contrast to the orientable four-ball genus, which is bounded below by the Murasugi signature, the Ozsvath-Szabo tau-invariant, the Rasmussen s-invariant, the best lower bound in the literature on the nonorientable four-ball genus for any K is 3. We find a lower bound in terms of the signature of K and the Heegaard-Floer d-invariant of the integer homology sphere given by -1 surgery on K. In particular, we prove that the nonorientable four-ball genus of the torus knot T(2k,2k-1) is k-1.
We compare the values of the nonorientable three genus (or, crosscap number) and the nonorientable four genus of torus knots. In particular, let T(p,q) be any torus knot with p even and q odd. The difference between these two invariants on T(p,q) is at least k/2, where p = qk + a and 0 < a < q and $k\geq 0$. Hence, the difference between the two invariants on torus knots T(p,q) grows arbitrarily large for any fixed odd q, as p ranges over values of a fixed congruence class modulo q. This contrasts with the orientable setting. Seifert proved that the orientable three genus of the torus knot T(p…
We prove that the hyperelliptic mapping class group of a nonorientable surface of genus $g\geq 4$ has a faithful linear representation of dimension $g^2-1$ over $\mathbb{R}$.
Let $N$ be a connected nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. Suppose that $g$ is odd and $g+n \geqslant 6$. We prove that the automorphism group of the complex of curves of $N$ is isomorphic to the mapping class group $\mathcal M_{N}$ of $N$.
We investigate the nonorientable 4-genus $γ_4$ of a special family of 2-bridge knots, the twist knots and double twist knots $C(m,n)$. Because the nonorientable 4-genus is bounded by the nonorientable 3-genus, it is known that $γ_4(C(m,n)) \le 3$. By using explicit constructions to obtain upper bounds on $γ_4$ and known obstructions derived from Donaldson's diagonalization theorem to obtain lower bounds on $γ_4$, we produce infinite subfamilies of $C(m,n)$ where $γ_4=0,1,2,$ and $3$, respectively. However, there remain infinitely many double twist knots where our work only shows that $γ_4$ lie…
We show that there exists an admissible nonorientable genus $g$ Lefschetz fibration with only one singular fiber over a closed orientable surface of genus $h$ if and only if $g \geq 4$ and $h \geq 1$.
We develop obstructions to a knot K in the 3-sphere bounding a smooth punctured Klein bottle in the 4-ball. The simplest of these is based on the linking form of the 2-fold branched cover of the 3-sphere branched over K. Stronger obstructions are based on the Ozsvath-Szabo correction term in Heegaard-Floer homology, along with the G-signature theorem and the Guillou-Marin generalization of Rokhlin's theorem. We also apply Casson-Gordon theory to show that for every n greater than one there exists a knot that does not bound a topologically embedded nonorientable ribbon surface F in the 4-ball w…
The nonorientable 4-genus is an invariant of knots which has been studied by many authors, including Gilmer and Livingston, Batson, and Ozsváth, Stipsicz, and Szabó. Given a nonorientable surface $F \subset B^4$ with $\partial F = K\subset S^3$ a knot, an analysis of the existing methods for bounding and computing the nonorientable 4-genus reveals relationships between the first Betti number $β_1$ of $F$ and the normal Euler class $e$ of $F$. This relationship yields a geography problem: given a knot $K$, what is the set of realizable pairs $(e(F), β_1(F))$ where $F\subset B^4$ is a nonorienta…
Let $N_{g,n}$ denote the nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components and $M(N_{g,n})$ its mapping class group. We obtain an explicit finite presentation of $M(N_{g,n})$ for $n=0,1$ and all $g$ such that $g+n>3$.
The nonorientable 4-genus $γ_4(K)$ of a knot $K$ is the smallest first Betti number of any nonorientable surface properly embedded in the 4-ball, and bounding the knot $K$. We study a conjecture proposed by Batson about the value of $γ_4$ for torus knots, which can be seen as a nonorientable analogue of Milnor's Conjecture for the orientable 4-genus of torus knots. We prove the conjecture for many infinite families of torus knots, by relying on a lower bound for $γ_4$ formulated by Ozsváth, Stipsicz, and Szabó. As a side product we obtain new closed formulas for the signature of torus knots.
Let $N$ be a compact, connected, nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components. Let $\mathcal{C}(N)$ be the curve complex of $N$. We prove that if $(g, n) \neq (1,2)$ and $g + n \neq 4$, then there is an exhaustion of $\mathcal{C}(N)$ by a sequence of finite superrigid sets.
We show that the monodromy of Klassen's genus two open book for $P^2 \times S^1$ is the $Y$-homeomorphism of Lickorish, which is also known as the crosscap slide. Similarly, we show that $S^2 \widetilde{\times} S^1$ admits a genus two open book whose monodromy is the crosscap transposition. Moreover, we show that each of $P^2 \times S^1$ and $S^2 \widetilde{\times} S^1$ admits infinitely many isomorphic genus two open books whose monodromies are mutually nonisotopic. Furthermore, we include a simple observation about the stable equivalence classes of open books for $P^2 \times S^1$ and $S^2 \w…
Let $N_{g,s}$ denote the nonorientable surface of genus g with s boundary components. Recently Paris and Szepietowski obtained an explicit finite presentation for the mapping class group $M(N_{g,s})$ of the surface $N_{g,s}$, where $s\in{0,1}$ and $g+s>3$. Following this work we obtain a finite presentation for the subgroup $T(N_{g,s})$ of $M(N_{g,s})$ generated by Dehn twists.
Edmonds famously proved that every periodic knot of genus g possesses an equivariant Seifert surface of genus g. We show that this is not true if one instead considers nonorientable spanning surfaces of a periodic knot. We demonstrate by example that the difference between the first Betti number of an equivariant and a nonequivariant nonorientable spanning surface of a periodic knot, can be arbitrarily large.
Batson's conjecture is a non-orientable version of Milnor's conjecture, which states that the 4-ball genus of a torus knot $T(p,q)$ is equal to $\frac{(p-1)(q-1)}{2}$. Batson's conjecture states that the nonorientable 4-ball genus is equal to the pinch number of a torus knot, i.e. the number of a specific type of (nonorientable) band surgeries needed to obtain the unknot. The conjecture was recently proved to be false by Lobb. We will show that Lobb's counterexample fits into an infinite family of counterexamples.
Let $N$ be a compact, connected, nonorientable surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components, and $\mathcal{C}(N)$ be the complex of curves of $N$. Suppose that $g + n \leq 3$ or $g + n \geq 5$. If $λ: \mathcal{C}(N) \rightarrow \mathcal{C}(N)$ is an injective simplicial map, then $λ$ is induced by a homeomorphism of $N$.
We show the existence of infinitely many prime knots each of which having in their complements meridional essential surfaces with two boundary components and arbitrarily high genus.
We show that on a nonorientable surface of genus at least 7 any power of a Dehn twist is equal to a single commutator in the mapping class group and the same is true, under additional assumptions, for the twist subgroup, and also for the extended mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus at least 3.
We construct an infinite family of topologically slice 2--component boundary links $\ell_i$, none of which is smoothly concordant to a split link, such that $g_4(\ell_i)=i$.
We prove the existence of pure braids with arbitrarily many strands which are small, i.e. they contain no closed incompressible surface in the complement which is not boundary parallel. This implies the existence of irreducible non-Haken 3-manifolds of arbitrarily high Heegaard genus.
We consider manifold-knot pairs $(Y,K)$ where $Y$ is a homology sphere that bounds a homology ball. We show that the minimum genus of a PL surface $Σ$ in a homology ball $X$ such that $\partial (X, Σ) = (Y, K)$ can be arbitrarily large. Equivalently, the minimum genus of a surface cobordism in a homology cobordism from $(Y, K)$ to any knot in $S^3$ can be arbitrarily large. The proof relies on Heegaard Floer homology.
A Seifert surface F for a knot K is free if the complement of F is a handlebody (i.e., has free fundamental group). The free genus of K is the minimum genus among all free Seifert surfaces for K. In this paper we show that there exist families of hyperbolic knots with arbitrarily large volume, which each have free genus one. This implies that there are knots with free genus one but arbitrarily large canonical genus, and that there exist knots admitting incompressible free Seifert surfaces which cannot be built by applying Seifert's algorithm to a projection of the knot.
We construct a smooth Riemannian metric on any 3-manifold with the property that there are genus zero embedded minimal surfaces of arbitrarily high Morse index.
We show the existence of an infinite collection of hyperbolic knots where each of which has in its exterior meridional essential planar surfaces of arbitrarily large number of boundary components, or, equivalently, that each of these knots has essential tangle decompositions of arbitrarily large number of strings. Moreover, each of these knots has in its exterior meridional essential surfaces of any positive genus and (even) number of boundary components. That is, the compact surfaces that have a meridional essential embedding into a hyperbolic knot exterior have meridional essential embedding…
Based on work of Rasmussen, we construct a concordance invariant associated to the knot Floer complex, and exhibit examples in which this invariant gives arbitrarily better bounds on the 4-ball genus than the Ozsvath-Szabo tau invariant.
In this paper, the support genus of all Legendrian right handed trefoil knots and some other Legendrian knots is computed. We give examples of Legendrian knots in the three-sphere with the standard contact structure which have positive support genus with arbitrarily negative Thurston-Benniquin invariant. This answers a question in Onaran.
In this paper, we develop a lower bound for the double slice genus of a knot using Casson-Gordon invariants. As an application, we show that the double slice genus can be arbitrarily larger than twice the slice genus. As an analogue to the double slice genus, we also define the superslice genus of a knot, and give both an upper bound and a lower bound in the topological category.
We will say that a group G possesses the Magnus property if for any two elements u,v in G with the same normal closure, u is conjugate to v or v^{-1}. We prove that some one-relator groups, including the fundamental groups of closed nonorientable surfaces of genus g>3 possess this property. The analogous result for orientable surfaces of any finite genus was obtained by the first author [Geometric methods in group theory, Contemp. Math, 372 (2005) 59-69].
We obtain new lower bounds of the minimal genus of a locally flat surface representing a 2-dimensional homology class in a topological 4-manifold with boundary, using the von Neumann-Cheeger-Gromov $ρ$-invariant. As an application our results are employed to investigate the slice genus of knots. We illustrate examples with arbitrarily large slice genus for which our lower bound is optimal but all previously known invariants vanish.
We compute the genus zero bridge numbers and give lower bounds on the genus one bridge numbers for a large class of sufficiently generic hyperbolic twisted torus knots. As a result, the bridge spectra of these knots have two gaps which can be chosen to be arbitrarily large, providing the first known examples of hyperbolic knots exhibiting this property. In addition, we show that there are Berge and Dean knots with arbitrarily large genus one bridge numbers, and as a result, we give solutions to problems of Eudave-Muñoz concerning tunnel number one knots.
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 there are topologically slice knots with 4-ball genus equal to one and arbitrarily large concordance genus.
We show that the difference between the topological 4-genus of a knot and the minimal genus of a surface bounded by that knot that can be decomposed into a smooth concordance followed by an algebraically simple locally flat surface can be arbitrarily large. This extends work of Hedden-Livingston-Ruberman showing that there are topologically slice knots which are not smoothly concordant to any knot with trivial Alexander polynomial.
In a group, a non-trivial element is called a generalized torsion element if some non-empty finite product of its conjugates equals to the identity. We say that a knot has generalized torsion if its knot group admits such an element. For a (2, 2q+1)-torus knot K, we demonstrate that there are infinitely many unknots c such that p-twisting K about c yields a twist family, which consists of hyperbolic knots with generalized torsion whenever |p| > 3. This gives a new infinite class of hyperbolic knots having generalized torsion. In particular, each class contains knots with arbitrarily high genus…
In knot concordance three genera arise naturally, g(K), g_4(K), and g_c(K): these are the classical genus, the 4-ball genus, and the concordance genus, defined to be the minimum genus among all knots concordant to K. Clearly 0 <= g_4(K) <= g_c(K) <= g(K). Casson and Nakanishi gave examples to show that g_4(K) need not equal g_c(K). We begin by reviewing and extending their results. For knots representing elements in A, the concordance group of algebraically slice knots, the relationships between these genera are less clear. Casson and Gordon's result that A is nontrivial implies that g_4(K) ca…
We define a generalization of Coxeter graphs and an associated Coxeter system and Coxeter mapping class. These can be used to construct periodic Coxeter mapping classes on surfaces with arbitrarily large genus, preserving lots of symmetries. The periodic mapping classes can in turn be used to construct sequences of pseudo-Anosov mapping classes with bounded normalized dilatation and arbitrarily high genus. We show that the smallest known accumulation point of normalized dilatations can be realized by such a sequence.
The doubly slice genus of a knot in the 3-sphere is the minimal genus among unknotted orientable surfaces in the 4-sphere for which the knot arises as a cross-section. We use the classical signature function of the knot to give a new lower bound for the doubly slice genus. We combine this with an upper bound due to C. McDonald to prove that for every nonnegative integer $N$ there is a knot where the difference between the slice and doubly slice genus is exactly $N$, refining a result of W. Chen which says this difference can be arbitrarily large.
We show that for any given closed orientable 3-manifold M with a Heegaard surface of genus g, any positive integers b and n, there exists a knot K in M which admits a (g,b)-bridge splitting of distance greater than n with respect to the Heegaard surface except for (g,b) = (0,1), (0,2).
This paper presents evidence supporting the surprising conjecture that in the topological category the slice genus of a satellite knot $P(K)$ is bounded above by the sum of the slice genera of $K$ and $P(U)$. Our main result establishes this conjecture for a variant of the topological slice genus, the $\mathbb{Z}$-slice genus. As an application, we show that the $(n,1)$-cable of any 3-genus 1 knot (e.g. the figure 8 or trefoil knot) has topological slice genus at most 1. Further, we show that the lower bounds on the slice genus coming from the Tristram-Levine and Casson-Gordon signatures canno…
We show that any infinite-type surface without planar ends admits arbitrarily large families of length isospectral hyperbolic structures. If the surface has infinite genus and its space of ends is self-similar, we construct an uncountable family of isospectral and quasiconformally distinct hyperbolic structures.
We provide a new obstruction for a rational homology 3-sphere to arise by Dehn surgery on a given knot in the 3-sphere. The obstruction takes the form of an inequality involving the genus of the knot, the surgery coefficient, and a count of L-structures on the 3-manifold, that is spin-c structures with the simplest possible associated Heegaard Floer group. Applications include an obstruction for two framed knots to yield the same 3-manifold, an obstruction that is particularly effective when working with families of framed knots. We introduce the rational and integral Dehn surgery genera for a…
Given any closed, connected, orientable $3$--manifold and integers $g\geq g(M), D > 0$, we show the existence of knots in $M$ whose genus $g$ bridge number is greater than $D$. These knots lie in a page of an open book decomposition of $M$, and the proof proceeds by examining the action of the map induced by the monodromy on the arc and curve complex of a page. A corollary is that there are Berge knots of arbitrarily large genus one bridge number.
We have a knot quandle and a fundamental class as invariants for a surface-knot. These invariants can be defined for a classical knot in a similar way, and it is known that the pair of them is a complete invariant for classical knots. In this paper, we compare a situation in surface-knot theory with that in classical knot theory, and prove the following: There exist arbitrarily many inequivalent surface-knots of genus $g$ with the same knot quandle, and there exist two inequivalent surface-knots of genus $g$ with the same knot quandle and with the same fundamental class.
We study the 3-dimensional immersed crosscap number of a knot, which is a nonorientable analogue of the immersed Seifert genus. We study knots with immersed crosscap number 1, and show that a knot has immersed crosscap number 1 if and only if it is a nonntrivial $(2p,q)$-torus or $(2p,q)$-cable knot. We show that unlike in the orientable case the immersed crosscap number can differ from the embedded crosscap number by arbitrarily large amounts, and that it is neither bounded below nor above by the 4-dimensional crosscap number. We then use these constructions to find, for any $n\geq 2$, an ori…
We construct knots in S^3 with Heegaard splittings of arbitrarily high distance, in any genus. As an application, for any positive integers t and b we find a tunnel number t knot in the three-sphere which has no (t,b)-decomposition.
We study the ribbon discs that arise from a symmetric union presentation of a ribbon knot. A natural notion of symmetric ribbon number is introduced and compared with the classical ribbon number. We show that the gap between these numbers can be arbitrarily large by constructing an infinite family of ribbon knots with ribbon number 2 and arbitrarily large symmetric ribbon number. The proof is based on a particularly simple description of symmetric unions in terms of certain band diagrams which leads to an upper bound for the Heegaard genus of their branched double covers.
