If R is a nonseparating simple closed curve on the boundary of a genus two handlebody H and H[R] has incompressible boundary, then there exists a unique arc omega in bdry(H), meeting R only in its endpoints, such that, omega is isotopic in bdry(H), keeping its endpoints on R, to a nontrivial wave based at R in each Heegaard diagram of R on bdry(H) which has no cut-vertex. Then surgery on R along its "distinguished-wave" omega yields a pair of simple closed curves, say m_1 and m_2, in bdry(H), each representing an "omega-determined-slope" m on bdry(H[R]), that depends only on R and H.
A few consequences: 1) Only Dehn filling of H[R] at slope m can yield S^3, (S^1 X S^2) # L(p,q), or S^1 X S^2. So H[R] embeds in at most one of S^3, (S^1 X S^2) # L(p,q), or S^1 X S^2. And, if such an embedding exists, it is unique. 2) Theta curves arising from unknotting tunnels of tunnel-number-one knots in S^3, S^1 X S^2, or (S^1 X S^2) # L(p,q), have canonical component knots. 3) One can recognize (1,1) tunnels of (1,1) knots in S^3 or S^1 X S^2. 4) Algorithms for recognizing genus two Heegaard diagrams of S^3, S^1 X S^2, or (S^1 X S^2) # L(p,q) that use waves can be streamlined. 5) Efficient procedures for computing the depth of an unknotting tunnel of a knot in S^3, S^1 X S^2, or (S^1 X S^2) # L(p,q) exist.
Finally, if H[R_1] is homeomorphic to H[R_2], but (H,R_1) and (H,R_2) are not homeomorphic, then the omega-determined slopes on bdry(H[R_1]) and bdry(H[R_2]) may differ.
However, computation suggests that, if 'R' is a set of simple closed curves on bdry(H) such that R_1 in 'R' and R_2 in 'R' means H[R_1] is homeomorphic to H[R_2], then at most two distinct slopes appear as omega-determined slopes for curves in 'R', and that, if such distinct omega-determined slopes exist, they are never more than distance one apart.
Let $M$ be an orientable 3-manifold with $\partial M$ a single torus. We show that the number of boundary slopes of immersed essential surfaces with genus at most $g$ is bounded by a quadratic function of $g$. In the hyperbolic case, this was proved earlier by Hass, Rubinstein and Wang.
The Horikawa index and the local signature are introduced for relatively minimal fibered surfaces whose general fiber is a non-hyperelliptic curve of genus $4$ with unique trigonal structure.
This paper presents some finiteness results for the number of boundary slopes of immersed essential surfaces of given genus g in a compact 3-manifold with torus boundary. In the case of hyperbolic 3-manifolds we obtain uniform quadratic bounds in g for the number of possible slopes, independent of the 3-manifold. We also look at some related quantities, such as how many times the slopes of two such surfaces of specified genus can intersect.
For any hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ with totally geodesic boundary, there are finitely many boundary slopes for essential immersed surfaces of a given genus. There is a uniform bound for the number of such boundary slopes if the genus of $\partial M$ or the volume of $M$ is bounded above. When the volume is bounded above, then area of $\partial M$ is bounded above and the length of closed geodesic on $\partial M$ is bounded below.
For $g\geq 3$, we construct genus-$g$ Lefschetz fibrations over the two-sphere whose slopes are arbitrarily close to $2$. The total spaces of the Lefschetz fibrations can be chosen to be minimal and simply connected. It is also shown that the infimum and the supremum of slopes all Lefschetz fibrations are not realized as slopes.
We exhibit an infinite family of knots with isomorphic knot Heegaard Floer homology. Each knot in this infinite family admits a nontrivial genus two mutant which shares the same total dimension in both knot Floer homology and Khovanov homology. Each knot is distinguished from its genus two mutant by both knot Floer homology and Khovanov homology as bigraded groups. Additionally, for both knot Heegaard Floer homology and Khovanov homology, the genus two mutation interchanges the groups in $δ$-gradings $k$ and $-k$.
In this article we find an upper and lower bound for the slope of genus g hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations, which is sharp when g = 2, and demonstrate the strong connection, in general, between the slope of hyperelliptic genus g Lefschetz fibrations and the number of separating vanishing cycles. Specifically, we show that the slope is greater than 4-4/g if and only if the fibration contains separating vanishing cycles. We also improve the existing bound on s/n, the ratio of number of separating vanishing cycles to the number of non-separating vanishing cycles, for hyperelliptic Lefschetz fib…
In this paper, we study the Riley polynomial of double twist knots with higher genus. Using the root of the Riley polynomial, we compute the range of rational slope $r$ such that $r$-filling of the knot complement has left-orderable fundamental group. Further more, we make a conjecture about left-orderable surgery slopes of two-bridge knots.
In this paper, we prove that there are no truly cosmetic surgeries on genus one classical knots. If the two surgery slopes have the same sign, we give the only possibilities of reflectively cosmetic surgeries. The result is an application of Heegaard Floer theory and number theory.
A classification of spanning surfaces for alternating links is provided up to genus, orientability, and a new invariant that we call aggregate slope. That is, given an alternating link, we determine all possible combinations of genus, orientability, and aggregate slope that a surface spanning that link can have. To this end, we describe a straightforward algorithm, much like Seifert's Algorithm, through which to construct certain spanning surfaces called layered surfaces. A particularly important subset of these will be what we call basic layered surfaces. We can alter these surface by perform…
In a minimal flow, the hitting time is the exponent of the power law, as r goes to zero, for the time needed by orbits to become r-dense. We show that on the so-called Ornithorynque origami the hitting time of the flow in an irrational slope equals the diophantine type of the slope. We give a general criterion for such equality. In general, for genus at least two, hitting time is strictly bigger than diophantine type.
We show that the only closed 4-manifolds admitting genus two trisections are $S^2 \times S^2$ and connected sums of $S^1 \times S^3$, $\mathbb{CP}^2$, and $\overline{\mathbb{CP}}^2$ with two summands. Moreover, each of these manifolds admits a unique genus two trisection up to diffeomorphism. The proof relies heavily on the combinatorics of genus two Heegaard diagrams of $S^3$. As a corollary, we classify two-component links contained in a genus two Heegaard surface for $S^3$ with a surface-sloped cosmetic Dehn surgery.
The genus of satellite tunnel number one knots and torti-rational knots is computed using the tools introduced by Floyd and Hatcher. An implementation of an algorithm is given to compute genus and slopes of minimal genus Seifert surfaces for such knots.
We compute the class of arithmetic genus two Teichmueller curves in the Picard group of pseudo-Hilbert modular surfaces, distinguished according to their torsion order and spin invariant. As an application, we compute the number of genus two square-tiled surfaces with these invariants. The main technical tool is the computation of divisor classes of Hilbert Jacobi forms on the universal abelian surface over the pseudo-Hilbert modular surface.
Let $M$ be a simple 3-manifold such that one component of $\partial M$, say $F$, has genus at least two. For a slope $α$ on $F$, we denote by $M(α)$ the manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to $M$ along a regular neighborhood of $α$ on $F$. If $M(α)$ is reducible, then $α$ is called a reducing slope. In this paper, we shall prove that the distance between two separating, reducing slopes on $F$ is at most 4.
Consider genus $g$ curves that admit degree $d$ covers to elliptic curves only branched at one point with a fixed ramification type. The locus of such covers forms a one parameter family $Y$ that naturally maps into the moduli space of stable genus $g$ curves $\bar{\mathcal M}_{g}$. We study the geometry of $Y$, and produce a combinatorial method by which to investigate its slope, irreducible components, genus and orbifold points. As a by-product of our approach, we find some equalities from classical number theory. Moreover, a correspondence between our method and the viewpoint of square-tile…
For any hyperbolic genus one 2-bridge knot in the 3-sphere, we show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on the knot has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ lies in some range which depends on the knot.
Let $M$ be a simple manifold, and $F$ be a component of $\partial M$ of genus two. For a slope $γ$ on $F$, we denote by $M(γ)$ the manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to $M$ along a regular neighborhood of $γ$ on $F$. In this paper, we shall prove that there is at most one separating slope $γ$ on $F$ so that $M(γ)$ is $\partial$-reducible.
Various structural properties are developed for non-orientable surfaces in link spaces. The Möbius band tree is described to represent genus growth of one-sided surfaces in solid tori. The structure of the Tree allows various insights into the change of genus under boundary slope, which are not possible using the existing continued fractions algorithm. A restriction under which geometrically incompressible, boundary compressible one-sided surfaces have a unique boundary incompressible form away from the boundary is established.
To each knot $K\subset S^3$ one can associated its knot Floer homology $\hat{HFK}(K)$, a finitely generated bigraded abelian group. In general, the nonzero ranks of these homology groups lie on a finite number of slope one lines with respect to the bigrading. The width of the homology is, in essence, the largest horizontal distance between two such lines. Also, for each diagram $D$ of $K$ there is an associated Turaev surface, and the Turaev genus is the minimum genus of all Turaev surfaces for $K$. We show that the width of knot Floer homology is bounded by Turaev genus plus one. Skein relati…
Let $M=H_{+}\cup_{S} H_{-}$ be a genus $g$ Heegaard splitting with Heegaard distance $n\geq κ+2$: (1) Let $c_{1}$, $c_{2}$ be two slopes in the same component of $\partial_{-}H_{-}$, such that the natural Heegaard splitting $M^{i}=H_{+}\cup_{S} (H_{-}\cup_{c_{i}} 2-handle)$ has distance less than $n$, then the distance of $c_{1}$ and $c_{2}$ in the curve complex of $\partial_{-}H_{-}$ is at most $3\mathfrak{M}+2$, where $κ$ and $\mathfrak{M}$ are constants due to Masur-Minsky. (2) Let $M^{*}$ be the manifold obtained by attaching a collection of handlebodies $\mathscr{H}$ to $\partial_{-} H_{-…
The purpose of this article is two-fold: We first give a more elementary proof of a recent theorem of Korkmaz, Monden, and the author, which states that the commutator length of the n-th power of a Dehn twist along a boundary parallel curve on a surface with boundary S of genus g at least two is the floor of (|n|+3)/2 in the mapping class group of S. The alternative proof we provide goes through push maps and Morita's use of Milnor-Wood inequalities, in particular it does not appeal to gauge theory. In turn, we produce infinite families of pairwise non-homotopic 4-manifolds admitting genus g s…
Mendes Lopes and Pardini showed that minimal general type surfaces of Albanese dimension one have slopes $K^2/χ$ dense in the interval $[2,8]$. This result was completed to cover the admissible interval $[2,9]$ by Roulleau and Urzua, who proved that surfaces with fundamental group equal to that of any curve of genus $g \geq 1$ (in particular, having Albanese dimension one) give a set of slopes dense in $[6,9]$. In this note we provide a second construction that complements that of Mendes Lopes-Pardini, to recast a dense set of slopes in $[8,9]$ for surfaces of Albanese dimension one. These sur…
A knot in the 3-sphere in genus-1 1-bridge position (called a (1,1)-position) can be described by an element of the braid group of two points in the torus. Our main results tell how to translate between a braid group element and the sequence of slope invariants of the upper and lower tunnels of the (1,1)-position. After using them to verify previous calculations of the slope invariants for all tunnels of 2-bridge knots and (1,1)-tunnels of torus knots, we obtain characterizations of the slope sequences of tunnels of 2-bridge knots, and of a class of tunnels we call toroidal. The main results l…
Suppose $α$ and $R$ are disjoint simple closed curves in the boundary of a genus two handlebody $H$ such that $H[R]$ embeds in $S^3$ as the exterior of a hyperbolic knot $k$(thus, $k$ is a tunnel-number-one knot), and $α$ is Seifert in $H$(i.e., a 2-handle addition $H[α]$ is a Seifert-fibered space) and not the meridian of $H[R]$. Then for a slope $γ$ of $k$ represented by $α$, $γ$-Dehn surgery $k(γ)$ is a Seifert-fibered space. Such a construction of Seifert-fibered Dehn surgeries generalizes that of Seifert-fibered Dehn surgeries arising from primtive/Seifert positions of a knot, which was i…
For a genus-1 1-bridge knot in the 3-sphere, that is, a (1,1)-knot, a middle tunnel is a tunnel that is not an upper or lower tunnel for some (1,1)-position. Most torus knots have a middle tunnel, and non-torus-knot examples were obtained by Goda, Hayashi, and Ishihara. In a previous paper, we generalized their construction and calculated the slope invariants for the resulting examples. We give an iterated version of the construction that produces many more examples, and calculate their slope invariants. If one starts with the trivial knot, the iterated constructions produce all the 2-bridge k…
The sextic plane curves that are invariant under the standard action of the icosahedral group on the projective plane make up a pencil of genus ten curves (spanned by a sum of six lines and a three times a conic). This pencil was first considered in a note by R.~M.~Winger in 1925 and is nowadays named after him. The second author recently gave this a modern treatment and proved among other things that it contains essentially every smooth genus ten curve with icosahedral symmetry. We here show that the Jacobian of such a curve contains the tensor product of an elliptic curve with a certain inte…
