If a knot K has Seifert matrix V_K and has a prime power cyclic branched cover that is not a homology sphere, then there is an infinite family of non-concordant knots having Seifert matrix V_K.
In this note, we collect various properties of Seifert homology spheres from the viewpoint of Dehn surgery along a Seifert fiber. We expect that many of these are known to various experts, but include them in one place which we hope to be useful in the study of concordance and homology cobordism.
We show that for each Seifert form of an algebraically slice knot with nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exists an infinite family of knots having the Seifert form such that the knots are linearly independent in the knot concordance group and not concordant to any knot with coprime Alexander polynomial. Key ingredients for the proof are Cheeger-Gromov-von Neumann rho-invariants for amenable groups developed by Cha and Orr and polynomial splittings of metabelian rho-invariants.
This paper proves that every oriented non-disk Seifert surface $F$ for a knot $K$ in $S^3$ is smoothly concordant to a Seifert surface $F^{\prime}$ for a hyperbolic knot $K^{\prime}$ of arbitrarily large volume. This gives a new and simpler proof of the result of Friedl and of Kawauchi that every knot is $S$-equivalent to a hyperbolic knot of arbitrarily large volume. The construction also gives a new and simpler proof of the result of Silver and Whitten and of Kawauchi that for every knot $K$ there is a hyperbolic knot $K^{\prime}$ of arbitrarily large volume and a map of pairs $f:(S^3,K^{\pr…
We prove that the map on knot Floer homology induced by a ribbon concordance is injective. As a consequence, we prove that the Seifert genus is monotonic under ribbon concordance. We also generalize a theorem of Gabai about the super-additivity of the Seifert genus under band connected sum. Our result gives evidence for a conjecture of Gordon that ribbon concordance is a partial order on the set of 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.
By a recent result of Livingston, it is known that if a knot has a prime power branched cyclic cover that is not a homology sphere, then there is an infinite family of non-concordant knots having the same Seifert form as the knot. In this paper, we extend this result to the full extent. We show that if the knot has nontrivial Alexander polynomial, then there exists an infinite family of non-concordant knots having the same Seifert form as the knot. As a corollary, no nontrivial Alexander polynomial determines a unique knot concordance class. We use Cochran-Orr-Teichner's recent result on the k…
The main goal of this article is to obtain a condition under which an infinite collection $\mathscr{F}$ of satellite knots (with companion a positive torus knot and pattern similar to the Whitehead link) freely generates a subgroup of infinite rank in the smooth concordance group. This goal is attained by examining both the instanton moduli space over a 4-manifold with tubular ends and the corresponding Chern-Simons invariant of the adequate 3-dimensional portion of the 4-manifold. More specifically, the result is derived from Furuta's criterion for the independence of Seifert fibred homology …
A virtual knot that has a homologically trivial representative $\mathscr{K}$ in a thickened surface $Σ\times [0,1]$ is said to be an almost classical (AC) knot. $\mathscr{K}$ then bounds a Seifert surface $F\subset Σ\times [0,1]$. Seifert surfaces of AC knots are useful for computing concordance invariants and slice obstructions. However, Seifert surfaces in $Σ\times [0,1]$ are difficult to construct. Here we introduce virtual Seifert surfaces of AC knots. These are planar figures representing $F \subset Σ\times [0,1]$. An algorithm for constructing a virtual Seifert surface from a Gauss diagr…
We show that the Vassiliev invariants of orders $\leq n$ of a knot K, are obstructions to finding a regular Seifert surface, S, whose complement looks "simple" (e.g. like the complement of a disc) to the lower central series of its fundamental group. As a consequence of this, we obtain that the Vassiliev invariants of the knot $K=\partial S$ are null-concordance obstructions of certain links that can be obtained from regular spines of S. We also discuss various generalizations of these results, and we conjecture a geometric characterization of knots whose invariants of all orders vanish.
We establish certain "non-triviality" results for several filtrations of the smooth and topological knot concordance groups. First, as regards the n-solvable filtration of the topological knot concordance group defined by K. Orr, P. Teichner and the first author, we refine the recent non-triviality results of Cochran and Teichner by including information on the Alexander modules. These results also extend those of C. Livingston and the second author. We exhibit similar structure in the closely related symmetric Grope filtration of the knot concordance group considered by the first author and T…
We produce infinite families of knots $\{K^i\}_{i\geq 1}$ for which the set of cables $\{K^i_{p,1}\}_{i,p\geq 1}$ is linearly independent in the knot concordance group. We arrange that these examples lie arbitrarily deep in the solvable and bipolar filtrations of the knot concordance group, denoted by $\{F_n\}$ and $\{B_n\}$ respectively. As a consequence, this result cannot be reached by any combination of algebraic concordance invariants, Casson-Gordon invariants, and Heegaard-Floer invariants such as tau, epsilon, and Upsilon. We give two applications of this result. First, for any n>=0, th…
We address primary decomposition conjectures for knot concordance groups, which predict direct sum decompositions into primary parts. We show that the smooth concordance group of topologically slice knots has a large subgroup for which the conjectures are true and there are infinitely many primary parts each of which has infinite rank. This supports the conjectures for topologically slice knots. We also prove analogues for the associated graded groups of the bipolar filtration of topologically slice knots. Among ingredients of the proof, we use amenable $L^2$-signatures, Ozsváth-Szabó $d$-inva…
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 introduce Tristram-Levine signatures of virtual knots and use them to investigate virtual knot concordance. The signatures are defined first for almost classical knots, which are virtual knots admitting homologically trivial representations. The signatures and $ω$-signatures are shown to give bounds on the topological slice genus of almost classical knots, and they are applied to address a recent question of Dye, Kaestner, and Kauffman on the virtual slice genus of classical knots. A conjecture on the topological slice genus is formulated and confirmed for all classical knots with up to 11 …
Torsion in the concordance group $\mathscr{C}$ of knots in $S^3$ can be studied with the algebraic concordance group $\mathscr{G}^{\mathbb{F}}$. Here $\mathbb{F}$ is a field of characteristic $χ(\mathbb{F}) \ne 2$. The group $\mathscr{G}^{\mathbb{F}}$ was defined by J. Levine, who also obtained an algebraic classification when $\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{Q}$. While the concordance group $\mathscr{C}$ is abelian, it embeds into the non-abelian virtual knot concordance group $\mathscr{VC}$. It is unknown if $\mathscr{VC}$ admits non-classical finite torsion. Here we define the virtual algebraic concorda…
This thesis develops some general calculational techniques for finding the orders of knots in the topological concordance group C. The techniques currently available in the literature are either too theoretical, applying to only a small number of knots, or are designed to only deal with a specific knot. The thesis builds on the results of Herald, Kirk and Livingston [HKL10] and Tamulis [Tam02] to give a series of criteria, using twisted Alexander polynomials, for determining whether a knot is of infinite order in C. There are two immediate applications of these theorems. The first is to give t…
We use the 2-loop term of the Kontsevich integral to show that there are (many) knots with trivial Alexander polynomial which don't have a Seifert surface whose genus equals the rank of the Seifert form. This is one of the first applications of the Kontsevich integral to intrinsically 3-dimensional questions in topology. Our examples contradict a lemma of Mike Freedman, and we explain what went wrong in his argument and why the mistake is irrelevant for topological knot concordance. References updated.
We give some constraints on intersection forms of spin 4-manifolds bounded by Seifert rational homology 3-spheres in terms of the $\barμ$ invariant and compare them with those in terms of the $κ$ invariant. We also show that the difference between $κ$ and $-\barμ$ for a Seifert rational homology 3-sphere is at most 2, and under certain extra conditions the difference is 0.
We show that bordered Floer homology provides a categorification of a TQFT described by Donaldson. This, in turn, leads to a proof that both the Alexander module of a knot and the Seifert form are completely determined by Heegaard Floer theory.
We introduce a new standard form of a Seifert surface $F$. In that standard form, $F$ is obtained by successively plumbing flat annuli to a disk $D$, where the gluing regions are all in $D$. We show that any link has a Seifert surface in the standard form, and thereby present a new way of coding a link. We present an algorithm to read the code directly from a braid presentation.
For every genus $g\geq 2$, we construct an infinite family of strongly quasipositive fibred knots having the same Seifert form as the torus knot $T(2,2g+1)$. In particular, their signatures and four-genera are maximal and their homological monodromies (hence their Alexander module structures) agree. On the other hand, the geometric stretching factors are pairwise distinct and the knots are pairwise not ribbon concordant.
We study invariant Seifert surfaces for strongly invertible knots, and prove that the gap between the equivariant genus (the minimum of the genera of invariant Seifert surfaces) of a strongly invertible knot and the (usual) genus of the underlying knot can be arbitrary large. This forms a sharp contrast with Edmonds' theorem that every periodic knot admits an invariant minimal genus Seifert surface. We also prove variants of Edmonds' theorem, which are useful in studying invariant Seifert surfaces for strongly invertible knots.
We examine surgery on a knot in $S^3$ to determine surgery obstructions to Seifert fibered integral homology spheres. We find such surgery obstructions using Heegaard Floer, Knot Floer homology and the mapping cone formula for computing Heegaard Floer homology of surgery on a knot. Here however, we take a different approach and use the number of singular fibers of a Seifert fibered integral homology sphere, which is the toroidal structure, to find obstructions. This approach allows us to show that genus one knots cannot yield Seifert fibered integral homology spheres with six or more singular …
Homogeneous links were introduced by Peter Cromwell, who proved that the projection surface of these links, that given by the Seifert algorithm, has minimal genus. Here we provide a different proof, with a geometric rather than combinatorial flavor. To do this, we first show a direct relation between the Seifert matrix and the decomposition into blocks of the Seifert graph. Precisely, we prove that the Seifert matrix can be arranged in a block triangular form, with small boxes in the diagonal corresponding to the blocks of the Seifert graph. Then we prove that the boxes in the diagonal has non…
We derive a simple closed formula for the SL(2,C) Casson invariant for Seifert fibered homology 3-spheres using the correspondence between SL(2,C) character varieties and moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles of rank two. These results are then used to deduce the invariant for Dehn surgeries on twist knots by combining computations of the Culler-Shalen norms with the surgery formula for the SL(2,C) Casson invariant.
We study an invariant of a 3-manifold which consists of Reidemeister torsion for linear representations which pass through a finite group. We show a Dehn surgery formula on this invariant and compute that of a Seifert manifold over $S^2$. As a consequence we obtain a necessary condition for a result of Dehn surgery along a knot to be Seifert fibered, which can be applied even in a case where abelian Reidemeister torsion gives no information.
The main result of this paper asserts that if a Seifert fibered 4-manifold has nonzero Seiberg-Witten invariant, the homotopy class of regular fibers has infinite order. This is a nontrivial obstruction to smooth circle actions; as applications, we show how to destroy smooth circle actions on a 4-manifold by knot surgery, without changing the integral homology, intersection form, and even the Seiberg-Witten invariant. Results concerning classification of Seifert fibered complex surfaces or symplectic 4-manifolds are included. We also show that every smooth circle action on the 4-torus is smoot…
For a given smooth $2$-knot in $S^4$, we relate the existence of a smooth Seifert hypersurface of a certain class to the existence of irreducible $ SU(2)$-representations of its knot group. For example, we see that any smooth $2$-knot having the Poincaré homology $3$-sphere as a Seifert hypersurface has at least four irreducible $SU(2)$-representations of its knot group. This result is false in the topological category. The proof uses a quantitative formulation of instanton Floer homology. Using similar techniques, we also obtain similar results about codimension-$1$ embeddings of homology $3$…
We develop new algebraic methods refining the Witt group of linking forms and Ranicki's torsion algebraic L-groups into double Witt groups and double L-groups. At each prime ideal of the underlying ring, our double Witt groups capture infinitely many more integral signatures of the linking form than the single Witt groups. The double L-groups are an algebraic theory of `double cobordism', refining L-theory analogously. We exhibit an exact sequence relating the double L-groups to classical projective L-theory via a double homology surgery obstruction group. The algebraic techniques are applied …
We compute the effect of concordance surgery, a generalization of knot surgery defined using a self-concordance of a knot, on the Ozsváth-Szabó 4-manifold invariant. The formula involves the graded Lefschetz number of the concordance map on knot Floer homology. The proof uses the sutured Floer TQFT, and a version of sutured Floer homology perturbed by a 2-form.
We review some recent results in knot concordance and homology cobordism. The proofs rely on various forms of Heegaard Floer homology. We also discuss related open problems.
We use the Heegaard-Floer homology correction terms defined by Ozsváth--Szabó to formulate a new obstruction for a knot to be of finite order in the smooth concordance group. This obstruction bears a formal resemblance to that of Casson and Gordon but is sensitive to the difference between the smooth versus topological category. As an application we obtain new lower bounds for the concordance order of small crossing knots.
In this note we show that ribbon concordance forms a partial ordering on the set of knots, answering a question of Gordon. The proof makes use of representation varieties of the knot groups to $SO(N)$ and relations between them induced by a ribbon concordance.
We compute the knot Floer filtration induced by a cable of the meridian of a knot in the manifold obtained by large integer surgery along the knot. We give a formula in terms of the original knot Floer complex of the knot in the three-sphere. As an application, we show that a knot concordance invariant of Hom can equivalently be defined in terms of filtered maps on the Heegaard Floer homology groups induced by the two-handle attachment cobordism of surgery along a knot.
We characterise positive braid links with positive Seifert form via a finite number of forbidden minors. From this we deduce a one-to-one correspondence between prime positive braid links with positive Seifert form and simply laced Dynkin diagrams, as well as a simple classification of alternating positive braid knots.
We use the Blanchfield form to obtain a lower bound on the equivariant slice genus of a strongly invertible knot. For our main application, let $K$ be a genus one strongly invertible slice knot with nontrivial Alexander polynomial. We show that the equivariant slice genus of an equivariant connected sum $\#^n K$ is at least $n/4$. We also formulate an equivariant algebraic concordance group, and show that the kernel of the forgetful map to the classical algebraic concordance group is infinite rank.
Novikov initiated the study of the algebraic properties of quadratic forms over polynomial extensions by a far-reaching analogue of the Pontrjagin-Thom transversality construction of a Seifert surface of a knot and the infinite cyclic cover of the knot exterior. In this paper the analogy is applied to explain the relationship between the Seifert forms over a ring with involution and Blanchfield forms over the Laurent polynomial extension.
In this survey article we present connections between Picard--Lefschetz invariants of isolated hypersurface singularities and Blanchfield forms for links. We emphasize the unifying role of Hermitian Variation Structures introduced by Némethi.
Dai, Hom, Stoffregen and Truong defined a family of concordance invariants $φ_j$. The example of a knot with zero Upsilon invariant but nonzero epsilon invariant previously given by Hom also has nonzero phi invariant. We show there are infinitely many such knots that are linearly independent in the smooth concordance group. In the opposite direction, we build infinite families of linearly independent knots with zero phi invariant but nonzero Upsilon invariant. We also give a recursive formula for the phi invariant of torus knots.
Kearton observed that mutation can change the concordance class of a knot. A close examination of his example reveals that it is of 4-genus 1 and has a mutant of 4-genus 0. The first goal of this paper is to construct examples to show that for any pair of nonnegative integers m and n there is a knot of 4-genus m with a mutant of 4-genus n. A second result of this paper is a crossing change formula for the algebraic concordance class of a knot, which is then applied to prove the invariance of the algebraic concordance class under mutation. The paper concludes with an application of crossing cha…
Given a fixed knot P in a solid torus and any knot K in S^3, one can form the satellite of K with pattern P. This operation induces a self-map of the concordance group of knots in S^3. It has been proved by Dai, Hedden, Mallick, and Stoffregen that in the smooth category there exist P for which this function is rank-expanding; that is, for some K, the set {P(nK)} generates an infinite rank subgroup. Here we demonstrate that similar examples exist in the case of the topological locally flat concordance group. Such examples cannot exist in the algebraic concordance group.
We establish homotopy ribbon concordance obstructions coming from the Blanchfield form and Levine-Tristram signatures. Then, as an application of twisted Alexander polynomials, we show that for every knot K with nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exists an infinite family of knots that are all concordant to K and have the same Blanchfield form as K, such that no pair of knots in that family is homotopy ribbon concordant.
We prove that many pretzel knots of the form $P(2n,m,-2n\pm1,-m)$ are not topologically slice, even though their positive mutants $P(2n, -2n\pm1, m, -m)$ are ribbon. We use the sliceness obstruction of Kirk and Livingston related to the twisted Alexander polynomials associated to prime power cyclic covers of knots.