By considering a version of Khovanov homology incorporating both the Lee and $E(-1)$ differentials, we construct a $1$-parameter family of concordance homomorphisms similar to the Upsilon invariant from knot Floer homology. This invariant gives lower bounds on the slice genus and can be used to prove that certain infinite families of pretzel knots are linearly independent in the smooth concordance group.
We construct the concordance invariant coming from the $E(-1)$ spectral sequence on Khovanov homology in the same way Rasmussen's $s$ invariant comes from the Lee spectral sequence, and show that it gives a bound on the nonorientable slice genus.
It was recently proved by several authors that ribbon concordances induce injective maps in knot Floer homology, Khovanov homology, and the Heegaard Floer homology of the branched double cover. We give a simple proof of a similar statement in a more general setting, which includes knot Floer homology, Khovanov-Rozansky homologies, and all conic strong Khovanov-Floer theories. This gives a philosophical answer to the question of which aspects of a link TQFT make it injective under ribbon concordances.
We study Khovanov homology over the Frobenius algebra $\mathbb{F}[U,V,X]/((X-U)(X-V))$, or $U(1) \times U(1)$-equivariant Khovanov homology, and extract two families of concordance invariants using the algebraic $U$-power and $V$-power filtrations on the chain complex. We also further develop the reduced version of the theory and study its behavior under mirroring.
We define an infinite family of linearly independent, integer-valued smooth concordance homomorphisms. Our homomorphisms are explicitly computable and rely on local equivalence classes of knot Floer complexes over the ring $\mathbb{F}[U, V]/(UV=0)$. We compare our invariants to other concordance homomorphisms coming from knot Floer homology, and discuss applications to topologically slice knots, concordance genus, and concordance unknotting number.
We modify the construction of knot Floer homology to produce a one-parameter family of homologies for knots in the three-sphere. These invariants can be used to give homomorphisms from the smooth concordance group to the integers, giving bounds on the four-ball genus and the concordance genus of knots. We give some applications of these homomorphisms.
Kawauchi defined a group structure on the set of homology $S^1$$\times$$S^2$'s under an equivalence relation called $\widetilde{H}$-cobordism. This group receives a homomorphism from the knot concordance group, given by the operation of zero-surgery. It is natural to ask whether the zero-surgery homomorphism is injective. We show that this question has a negative answer in the smooth category. Indeed, using knot concordance invariants derived from knot Floer homology we show that the kernel of the zero-surgery homomorphism contains a $\mathbb{Z}^\infty$-subgroup.
We study a notion of distance between knots, defined in terms of the number of saddles in ribbon concordances connecting the knots. We construct a lower bound on this distance using the X-action on Lee's perturbation of Khovanov homology.
In this paper, we study the (in)sensitivity of the Khovanov functor to four-dimensional linking of surfaces. We prove that if $L$ and $L'$ are split links, and $C$ is a cobordism between $L$ and $L'$ that is the union of disjoint (but possibly linked) cobordisms between the components of $L$ and the components of $L'$, then the map on Khovanov homology induced by $C$ is completely determined by the maps induced by the individual components of $C$ and does not detect the linking between the components. As a corollary, we prove that a strongly homotopy-ribbon concordance (i.e., a concordance who…
A spectral sequence is established, from Bar-Natan's variant of Khovanov homology to a deformation of instanton homology for knots and links. This spectral sequence arises as a specialization of a spectral sequence from a characteristic-2 version of $F_5$ homology, in Khovanov'sclassification. Concordance invariants of knots are derived from the corresponding instanton homology groups, including a 1-parameter family of homomorphisms $f_r$ from the concordance group to the reals, having the potential to provide independent bounds on the genus and number of double points for immersed surfaces wi…
This paper begins with a survey of some applications of Khovanov homology to low-dimensional topology, with an eye toward extending these results to $\mathfrak{sl}(n)$ homologies. We extend Levine and Zemke's ribbon concordance obstruction from Khovanov homology to $\mathfrak{sl}(n)$ homology for $n \geq 2$, including the universal $\mathfrak{sl}(2)$ and $\mathfrak{sl}(3)$ homology theories. Inspired by Alishahi and Dowlin's bounds for the unknotting number coming from Khovanov homology and relying on spectral sequence arguments, we produce bounds on the alternation number of a knot. Lee and B…
For all n > 0 there is a homomorphism from the smooth concordance group of knots in dimension 2n + 1 to an algebraically defined group called the rational algebraic concordance group. This algebraic concordance group splits as a direct sum of groups indexed by polynomials. For n > 1 the homomorphism is injective. This leads to what is called a primary decomposition theorem for knot concordance. In the classical dimension, the kernel of this homomorphism includes the smooth concordance group of topologically slice knots, and Jae Choon Cha has begun studying possible primary decompositions of th…
We use Lee's work on the Khovanov homology to define a knot invariant s. We show that s(K) is a concordance invariant and that it provides a lower bound for the slice genus of K. As a corollary, we give a purely combinatorial proof of the Milnor conjecture.
We define a new smooth concordance homomorphism based on the knot Floer complex and an associated concordance invariant, epsilon. As an application, we show that an infinite family of topologically slice knots are independent in the smooth concordance group.
A knot in a solid torus defines a map on the set of (smooth or topological) concordance classes of knots in $S^3$. This set admits a group structure, but a conjecture of Hedden suggests that satellite maps never induce interesting homomorphisms: we give new evidence for this conjecture in both categories. First, we use Casson-Gordon signatures to give the first obstruction to a slice pattern inducing a homomorphism on the topological concordance group, constructing examples with every winding number besides $\pm 1$. We then provide subtle examples of satellite maps which map arbitrarily deep i…
We show that the information contained in the associated graded vector space to Gornik's version of Khovanov-Rozansky knot homology is equivalent to a single even integer s_n(K). Furthermore we show that s_n is a homomorphism from the smooth knot concordance group to the integers. This is in analogy with Rasmussen's invariant coming from a perturbation of Khovanov homology.
We study two homomorphisms to the rational homology sphere group. If $ψ$ denotes the inclusion homomorphism from the integral homology sphere group, then using work of Lisca we show that the image of $ψ$ intersects trivially with the subgroup of the rational homology sphere group generated by lens spaces. As corollaries this gives a new proof that the cokernel of $ψ$ is infinitely generated, and implies that a connected sum $K$ of 2-bridge knots is concordant to a knot with determinant 1 if and only if $K$ is smoothly slice. Furthermore, if $β$ denotes the homomorphism from the knot concordanc…
We employ Hirzebruch-type invariants obtained from iterated p-covers to investigate concordance of links and string links. We show that the invariants naturally give various group homomorphisms of the string link concordance group into L-groups over number fields. We also obtain homomorphisms of successive quotients of the Cochran-Orr-Teichner filtration. As an application we show that the kernel of Harvey's $ρ_n$-invariant is large enough to contain a subgroup with infinite rank abelianization, modulo local knots. As another application, we show that recently discovered nontrivial 2-torsion e…
We study Khovanov homology classes which have state cycle representatives, and examine how they interact with Jacobsson homomorphisms and Lee's map $Φ$. As an application, we describe a general procedure, quasipositive modification, for constructing H-thick knots in rational Khovanov homology. Moreover, we show that specific families of such knots cannot be detected by Khovanov's thickness criteria. We also exhibit a sequence of prime links related by quasipositive modification whose width is increasing.
In this paper we present several counterexamples to Rasmussen's conjecture that the concordance invariant coming from Khovanov homology is equal to twice the invariant coming from Ozsv{á}th-Szab{ó} Floer homology. The counterexamples are twisted Whitehead doubles of the (2,2n+1) torus knots.
We use the knot homology of Khovanov and Lee to construct link concordance invariants generalizing the Rasmussen $s$-invariant of knots. The relevant invariant for a link is a filtration on a vector space of dimension $2^{|L|}$. The basic properties of the $s$-invariant all extend to the case of links; in particular, any orientable cobordism $Σ$ between links induces a map between their corresponding vector spaces which is filtered of degree $χ(Σ)$. A corollary of this construction is that any component preserving orientable cobordism from a $\Kh$-thin link to a link split into $k$ components …
It is well-known that generic perturbations of the complex Frobenius algebra used to define Khovanov cohomology each give rise to Rasmussen's concordance invariant s. This gives a concordance homomorphism to the integers and a strong lower bound on the smooth slice genus of a knot. Similar behavior has been observed in sl(n) Khovanov-Rozansky cohomology, where a perturbation gives rise to the concordance homomorphisms s_n for each n >= 2, and where we have s_2 = s. We demonstrate that s_n for n >= 3 does not in fact arise generically, and that varying the chosen perturbation gives rise both to…
For a ribbon knot, it is a folk conjecture that the rank of its knot Floer homology must be 1 modulo 8, and another folk conjecture says the same about reduced Khovanov homology. We give the first counter-examples to both of these folk conjectures, but at the same time present compelling evidence for new conjectures that either of these homologies must have rank congruent to 1 modulo 4 for any ribbon knot. We prove that each revised conjecture is equivalent to showing that taking the rank of the homology modulo 4 gives a homomorphism of the knot concordance group. We check the revised conjectu…
In [Duke Math. J. 101 (1999) 359-426], Mikhail Khovanov constructed a homology theory for oriented links, whose graded Euler characteristic is the Jones polynomial. He also explained how every link cobordism between two links induces a homomorphism between their homology groups, and he conjectured the invariance (up to sign) of this homomorphism under ambient isotopy of the link cobordism. In this paper we prove this conjecture, after having made a necessary improvement on its statement. We also introduce polynomial Lefschetz numbers of cobordisms from a link to itself such that the Lefschetz …
Concordance invariants of knots are derived from the instanton homology groups with local coefficients, as introduced in earlier work of the authors. These concordance invariants include a 1-parameter family of homomorphisms $f_{r}$, from the knot concordance group to the reals. Prima facie, these concordance invariants have the potential to provide independent bounds on the genus and number of double points for immersed surfaces with boundary a given knot.
We show that a decorated knot concordance $\mathcal{C}$ from $K_0$ to $K_1$ induces an $\mathbb{F}[U]$-module homomorphism \[G_{\mathcal{C}}: HFK^{-}(-S^3,K_0) \to HFK^{-}(-S^3,K_1)\] which preserves the Alexander and absolute $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Maslov gradings. Our construction generalizes the concordance maps induced on $\widehat{HFK}$ studied by Juhász and Marengon, but uses the description of $HFK^{-}$ as a direct limit of maps between sutured Floer homology groups discovered by Etnyre, Vela-Vick, and Zarev.
Let $D(K)$ be the positively-clasped untwisted Whitehead double of a knot $K$, and $T_{p,q}$ be the $(p,q)$ torus knot. We show that $D(T_{2,2m+1})$ and $D^2(T_{2,2m+1})$ are linearly independent in the smooth knot concordance group $\mathcal{C}$ for each $m\geq 2$. Further, $D(T_{2,5})$ and $D^2(T_{2,5})$ generate a $\mathbb{Z}\oplus\mathbb{Z}$ summand in the subgroup of $\mathcal{C}$ generated by topologically slice knots. We use the concordance invariant $δ$ of Manolescu and Owens, using Heegaard Floer correction term. Interestingly, these results are not easily shown using other concordanc…
We define two concordance invariants of knots using framed instanton homology. These invariants $ν^\sharp$ and $τ^\sharp$ provide bounds on slice genus and maximum self-linking number, and the latter is a concordance homomorphism which agrees in all known cases with the $τ$ invariant in Heegaard Floer homology. We use $ν^\sharp$ and $τ^\sharp$ to compute the framed instanton homology of all nonzero rational Dehn surgeries on: 20 of the 35 nontrivial prime knots through 8 crossings, infinite families of twist and pretzel knots, and instanton L-space knots; and of 19 of the first 20 closed hyper…
In the study of homology cobordisms, knot concordance and link concordance, the following technical problem arises frequently: let $π$ be a group and let $M \to N$ be a homomorphism between projective $\Z[π]$-modules such that $\Z_p \otimes_{\Z[π]} M\to \Z_p \otimes_{\Z[π]} N$ is injective; for which other right $\Z[π]$-modules $V$ is the induced map $V \otimes_{\Z[π]} M\to V\otimes_{\Z[π]}N$ also injective? Our main theorem gives a new criterion which combines and generalizes many previous results.
Symplectic Khovanov homology is an invariant of oriented links defined by Seidel and Smith and conjectured to be isomorphic to Khovanov homology. I define morphisms (up to a global sign ambiguity) between symplectic Khovanov homology groups, corresponding to isotopy classes of smooth link cobordisms in 4D between a fixed pair of links. These morphisms define a functor from the category of links and such cobordisms to the category of abelian groups and group homomorphisms up to a sign ambiguity. This provides an extra structure for symplectic Khovanov homology and more generally an isotopy inva…
We discuss an infinite class of metabelian Von Neumann rho-invariants. Each one is a homomorphism from the monoid of knots to the real line. In general they are not well defined on the concordance group. Nonetheless, we show that they pass to well defined homomorphisms from the subgroup of the concordance group generated by anisotropic knots. Thus, the computation of even one of these invariants can be used to conclude that a knot is of infinite order. We introduce a method to give a computable bound on these invariants. Finally we compute this bound to get a new and explicit infinite set of t…
In this paper we provide a new obstruction to 0-concordance of knotted surfaces in $S^4$ in terms of Alexander ideals. We use this to prove the existence of infinitely many linearly independent 0-concordance classes and to provide the first proof that the submonoid of 2-knots is not a group. The main result is that the Alexander ideal induces a homomorphism from the 0-concordance monoid $\mathscr{C}_0$ of oriented surface knots in $S^4$ to the ideal class monoid of $\mathbb{Z}[t^{\pm1}]$. Consequently, any surface knot with nonprincipal Alexander ideal is not 0-slice and in fact, not invertibl…
In an earlier work, we introduced a family of t-modified knot Floer homologies, defined by modifying the construction of knot Floer homology HFK-minus. The resulting groups were then used to define concordance homomorphisms indexed by t in [0,2]. In the present work we elaborate on the special case t=1, and call the corresponding modified knot Floer homology the unoriented knot Floer homology. Using elementary methods (based on grid diagrams and normal forms for surface cobordisms), we show that the resulting concordance homomorphism gives a lower bound for the smooth 4-dimensional crosscap nu…
Most of the 50-year history of the study of the set of knot concordance classes, C, has focused on its structure as an abelian group. Here we take a different approach, namely we study C as a metric space admitting many natural geometric operators, especially satellite operators. We consider several knot concordance spaces, corresponding to different categories of concordance, and two different metrics. We establish the existence of quasi-n-flats for every n, implying that C admits no quasi-isometric embedding into a finite product of (Gromov) hyperbolic spaces. We show that every satellite op…
We show that a decorated knot concordance $C$ from $K$ to $K'$ induces a homomorphism $F_C$ on knot Floer homology that preserves the Alexander and Maslov gradings. Furthermore, it induces a morphism of the spectral sequences to $\widehat{HF}(S^3) \cong \mathbb{Z}_2$ that agrees with $F_C$ on the $E^1$ page and is the identity on the $E^\infty$ page. It follows that $F_C$ is non-vanishing on $\widehat{HFK}_0(K, τ(K))$. We also obtain an invariant of slice disks in homology 4-balls bounding $S^3$. If $C$ is invertible, then $F_C$ is injective, hence $\dim \widehat{HFK}_j(K,i) \le \dim \widehat{…
We generalize the Manolescu-Owens smooth concordance invariant delta(K) of knots K in the 3-sphere to invariants delta_{p^n}(K) obtained by considering covers of order p^n, with p prime. Our main result shows that for any odd prime p, the direct sum of delta_{p^n} as n ranges through the natural numbers, yields a homomorphism of infinite rank from the smooth concordance group to Z^\infty. We also show that unlike delta, these new invariants typically are not multiples of the knot signature, even for alternating knots. A significant portion of the article is devoted to exploring examples.
The knot invariant Upsilon, defined by Ozsvath, Stipsicz, and Szabo, induces a homomorphism from the smooth knot concordance group to the group of piecewise linear functions on the interval [0,2]. Here we define a set of related secondary invariants, each of which assigns to a knot a piecewise linear function on [0,2]. These secondary invariants provide bounds on the genus and concordance genus of knots. Examples of knots for which Upsilon vanishes but which are detected by these secondary invariants are presented.
Upsilon is a homomorphism on the smooth concordance group of knots defined by Ozsváth, Stipsicz and Szabó. In this paper, we define a generalization of upsilon for a family of embedded graphs in rational homolog spheres. We show that our invariant will induce a homomorphism on the homology cobordism group of homology cylinders, and present some applications. To define this invariant, we use tangle Floer homology. We lift relative gradings on tangle Floer homology to absolute gradings (for certain tangles) and prove a concatenation formula for it.
The homology cobordism group of homology cylinders is a generalization of both the mapping class group of surfaces and the string link concordance group. We consider extensions of Johnson homomorphisms of a mapping class group, Milnor invariants and Orr invariants of links to homology cylinders, all of which are related to free nilpotent groups. We establish a combined filtration via kernels of extended Johnson homomorphisms and extended Milnor invariants. We determine its image under the three invariants, and investigate relations among the invariants, and relations of the filtration to autom…
We prove a formula for the conjugation action on the knot Floer complex of the connected sum of two knots. Using the formula we construct a homomorphism from the smooth concordance group to an abelian group consisting of chain complexes with homotopy automorphisms, modulo an equivalence relation. Using our connected sum formula, we perform some example computations of Hendricks and Manolescu's involutive invariants on large surgeries of connected sums of knots.
The homology cobordism group of homology cylinders is a generalization of the mapping class group and the string link concordance group. We study this group and its filtrations by subgroups by developing new homomorphisms. First, we define extended Milnor invariants by combining the ideas of Milnor's link invariants and Johnson homomorphisms. They give rise to a descending filtration of the homology cobordism group of homology cylinders. We show that each successive quotient of the filtration is free abelian of finite rank. Second, we define Hirzebruch-type intersection form defect invariants …
We exhibit a certain infinite family of three-stranded quasi-alternating pretzel knots which are counterexamples to Lobb's conjecture that the sl_3-knot concordance invariant s_3 (suitably normalised) should be equal to the Rasmussen invariant s_2. For this family, |s_3| < |s_2|. However, we also find other knots for which |s_3| > |s_2|. The main tool is an implementation of Morrison and Nieh's algorithm to calculate Khovanov's sl_3-foam link homology. Our C++-program is fast enough to calculate the integral homology of e.g. the (6,5)-torus knot in six minutes. Furthermore, we propose a potent…
