We study the connections among the mapping class group of the twice punctured torus, the cyclic branched coverings of (1,1)-knots and the cyclic presentations of groups. We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the n-fold strongly-cyclic branched coverings of (1,1)-knots, through the elements of the mapping class group. We prove that every n-fold strongly-cyclic branched covering of a (1,1)-knot admits a cyclic presentation for the fundamental group, arising from a Heegaard splitting of genus n. Moreover, we give an algorithm to produce the cyclic presentation and illustrate it in the case of cyclic branched coverings of torus knots of type (k,hk+1) and (k,hk-1).
A branched covering surface-knot is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over a surface-knot. For a branched covering surface-knot, we have a numerical invariant called the simplifying number. We show that branched covering surface-knots with degree three have the simplifying numbers less than three.
For any alternating knot, it is known that the double branched cover of the $3$-sphere branched over the knot is an $L$-space. We show that the three-fold cyclic branched cover is also an $L$-space for any genus one alternating knot.
We provide criteria ensuring that a tunnel number one knot $K$ is not determined by its double branched cover, in the sense that the double branched cover is also the double branched cover of a knot $K'$ not equivalent to $K$.
For any integer n > 2, the n-fold cyclic branched cover M of an alternating prime knot K in the 3-sphere determines K, meaning that if K is a knot in the 3-sphere that is not equivalent to K then its n-fold cyclic branched cover cannot be homeomorphic to M.
We prove that a prime knot K is not determined by its p-fold cyclic branched cover for at most two odd primes p. Moreover, we show that for a given odd prime p, the p-fold cyclic branched cover of a prime knot K is the p-fold cyclic branched cover of at most one more knot K' non equivalent to K. To prove the main theorem, a result concerning the symmetries of knots is also obtained. This latter result can be interpreted as a characterisation of the trivial knot.
In this paper, we introduce a sequence of invariants of a knot K in S^3: the knot Floer homology groups of the preimage of K in the m-fold cyclic branched cover over K. We exhibit the knot Floer homology in the m-fold branched cover as the categorification of a multiple of the Turaev torsion in the case where the m-fold branched cover is a rational homology sphere. In addition, when K is a 2-bridge knot, we prove that the knot Floer homology of the lifted knot in a particular Spin^c structure in the branched double cover matches the knot Floer homology of the original knot K in S^3. We conclud…
Using a Heegaard diagram for the pullback of a knot $K \subset S^3$ in its cyclic branched cover $Σ_m(K)$ obtained from a grid diagram for $K$, we give a combinatorial proof for the invariance of the associated combinatorial knot Floer homology over $\mathbb{Z}$.
A branched covering surface-knot over an oriented surface-knot $F$ is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over $F$. A branched covering surface-knot over $F$ is presented by a graph called a chart on a surface diagram of $F$. For a branched covering surface-knot, an addition of 1-handles equipped with chart loops is a simplifying operation which deforms the chart to the form of the union of free edges and 1-handles with chart loops. We investigate properties of such simplifications.
Using a Heegaard diagram for the pullback of a knot $K \subset S^3$ in its cyclic double branched cover $Σ_2(K)$, we give a combinatorial proof for the invariance of knot Floer homology over $\mathbb{Z}$.
A branched covering surface-knot is a surface-knot in the form of a branched covering over an oriented surface-knot $F$, where we include the case when the covering has no branch points. A branched covering surface-knot is presented by a graph called a chart on a surface diagram of $F$. We can simplify a branched covering surface-knot by an addition of 1-handles with chart loops to a form such that its chart is the union of free edges and 1-handles with chart loops. We investigate properties of such simplifications for the case when branched covering surface-knots have a non-zero number of bra…
In this paper we study the connections between cyclic presentations of groups and branched cyclic coverings of (1,1)-knots. In particular, we prove that every n-fold strongly-cyclic branched covering of a (1,1)-knot admits a cyclic presentation for the fundamental group encoded by a Heegaard diagram of genus n.
For some families of two-bridge knots, including double-twist knots with genus at least four, we determine precisely the set of integers $n>1$ such that the fundamental group of the $n$-fold cyclic branched cover of the 3-sphere along these knots is left-orderable. There are knots, including the figure-eight knot, for which this set is empty. We give the first class of hyperbolic knots, not of this type, for which these integers can be completely determined.
A branched twist spin is a generalization of twist spun knots, which appeared in the study of locally smooth circle actions on the $4$-sphere due to Montgomery, Yang, Fintushel and Pao. In this paper, we give a sufficient condition to distinguish non-equivalent, non-trivial branched twist spins by using knot determinants. To prove the assertion, we give a presentation of the fundamental group of the complement of a branched twist spin, which generalizes a presentation of Plotnick, calculate the first elementary ideals and obtain the condition of the knot determinants by substituting $-1$ for t…
An $(m,n)$-branched twist spin is a fibered $2$-knot in $S^4$ which is determined by a $1$-knot $K$ and coprime integers $m$ and $n$. For a $1$-knot, Lin proved that the number of irreducible $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-metabelian representations of the knot group of a $1$-knot up to conjugation is determined by the knot determinant of the $1$-knot. In this paper, we prove that the number of irreducible $SL(2,\mathbb{C})$-metabelian representations of the knot group of an $(m,n)$-branched twist spin up to conjugation is determined by the determinant of a $1$-knot in the orbit space by comparing a prese…
Strongly-cyclic branched coverings of knots are studied by using their (g,1)-decompositions. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of such coverings are obtained. It is also shown that their fundamental groups admit geometric g-words cyclic presentations.
We prove the non-left-orderability of the fundamental group of the $n$-th fold cyclic branched cover of the pretzel knot $P(3,-3,-2k-1)$ for all integers $k$ and $n\ge 1$. These $3$-manifolds are $L$-spaces discovered by Issa and Turner.
We show that if the branched double cover of an alternating link arises as $p/q \in \mathbb{Q} \setminus \mathbb{Z}$ surgery on a knot in $S^3$, then this is exhibited by a rational tangle replacement in an alternating diagram.
We discuss 3-manifolds which are cyclic coverings of the 3-sphere, branched over 2-bridge knots and links. Different descriptions of these manifolds are presented: polyhedral, Heegaard diagram, Dehn surgery and coloured graph constructions. Using these descriptions, we give presentations for their fundamental groups, which are cyclic presentations in the case of 2-bridge knots. The homology groups are given for a wide class of cases. Moreover, we prove that each singly-cyclic branched covering of a 2-bridge link is the composition of a meridian-cyclic branched covering of a determined link and…
We are interested in finite groups acting orientation-preservingly on 3-manifolds (arbitrary actions, ie not necessarily free actions). In particular we consider finite groups which contain an involution with nonempty connected fixed point set. This condition is satisfied by the isometry group of any hyperbolic cyclic branched covering of a strongly invertible knot as well as by the isometry group of any hyperbolic 2-fold branched covering of a knot in the 3-sphere. In the paper we give a characterization of nonsolvable groups of this type. Then we consider some possible applications to the st…
We show that every strongly-cyclic branched covering of a (1,1)-knot is a Dunwoody manifold. This result, together with the converse statement previously obtained by Grasselli and Mulazzani, proves that the class of Dunwoody manifolds coincides with the class of strongly-cyclic branched coverings of (1,1)-knots. As a consequence, we obtain a parametrization of (1,1)-knots by 4-tuples of integers. Moreover, using a representation of (1,1)-knots by the mapping class group of the twice punctured torus, we provide an algorithm which gives the parametrization of all torus knots.
By using double branched covers, we prove that there is a 1-1 correspondence between the set of knotoids in the 2-sphere, up to orientation reversion and rotation, and knots with a strong inversion, up to conjugacy. This correspondence allows us to study knotoids through tools and invariants coming from knot theory. In particular, concepts from geometrisation generalise to knotoids, allowing us to characterise invertibility and other properties in the hyperbolic case. Moreover, with our construction we are able to detect both the trivial knotoid in the 2-sphere and the trivial planar knotoid.
We compute the nonabelian $\mathrm{SL_2}(\mathbb{C})$-character varieties of the rational knots $C(2n+1,2m,2)$ in the Conway notation, where $m$ and $n$ are non-zero integers. By studying real points on these varieties, we determine the left orderability of the fundamental groups of the cyclic branched covers of $C(2n+1,2m,2)$.
We introduce a simple combinatorial method for computing all versions of the knot Floer homology of the preimage of a two-bridge knot K(p,q) inside its double-branched cover, -L(p,q). The 4-pointed genus 1 Heegaard diagram we obtain looks like a twisted version of the toroidal grid diagrams recently introduced by Manolescu, Ozsvath, and Sarkar. We conclude with a discussion of how one might obtain nice Heegaard diagrams for cyclic branched covers of more general knots.
We obtain a branched spherical CR structure on the complement of the figure eight knot with a given holonomy representation (called rho_2). There are essentially two boundary unipotent representations from the complement of the figure eight knot into PU(2,1), we call them rho_1 and rho_2. We make explicit some fundamental differences between these two representations. For instance, seeing the figure eight knot complement as a surface bundle over the circle, the behaviour of of the fundamental group of the fiber under the representation is a key difference between rho_1 and rho_2.
In a recent paper Y. Hu has given a sufficient condition for the fundamental group of the r-th cyclic branched covering of S^3 along a prime knot to be left-orderable in terms of representations of the knot group. Applying her criterion to a large class of two-bridge knots, we determine a range of the integer r>1 for which the r-th cyclic branched covering of S^3 along the knot is left-orderable.
Given a real analytic function $f$ from $\mathbb{R}^4$ to $\mathbb{R}^2$ with isolated critical point at the origin, the link $L_f$ of the singularity is a real fibred knot in $\mathbb{S}^{3}$. From this singularities, we construct a family of real isolated suspension singularities from $\mathbb{R}^6$ to $\mathbb{R}^2$ such that its links are the total spaces of the $n$-branched cyclic coverings over the corresponding knots. In this way we obtain as links of singularities, $3$-manifolds that does not appear in the complex case, such as hyperbolic $3$-manifolds or the Hantzsche-Wendt manifold.
A Seifert surgery is an integral surgery on a knot in S^3 producing a Seifert fiber space which may contain an exceptional fiber of index 0. The Seifert Surgery Network is a 1-dimensional complex whose vertices correspond to Seifert surgeries; its edges correspond to single twistings along "seiferters" or "annular pairs of seiferters". One problem of the network is whether there is a path from each vertex to a vertex on a torus knot, the most basic Seifert surgery. We give a method to find seiferters and annular pairs of seiferters for Seifert surgeries obtained by taking two--fold branched co…
In this paper we show that all 3-manifolds of a family introduced by M. J. Dunwoody are cyclic coverings of lens spaces (eventually $\bf S^3$), branched over genus one 1-bridge knots. As a consequence, we give a positive answer to the Dunwoody conjecture that all the elements of a wide subclass are cyclic coverings of $\bf S^3$ branched over a knot. Moreover, we show that all branched cyclic coverings of a 2-bridge knot belong to this subclass; this implies that the fundamental group of each branched cyclic covering of a 2-bridge knot admits a geometric cyclic presentation.
We extend the construction of upsilon-type invariants to null-homologous knots in rational homology three-spheres. By considering $m$-fold cyclic branched covers with $m$ a prime power, this extension provides new knot concordance invariants $Υ_m^C (K)$ of knots in $S^3$. We give computations of these invariants for some families of alternating knots and reprove some independence results in the smooth concordance group.
The union of singular orbits of an effective locally smooth circle action on the 4-sphere consists of two 2-knots, $K$ and $K^{\prime}$, intersecting at two points transversely. Each of $K$ and $K^{\prime}$ is called a branched twist spin. A twist spun knot is an example of a branched twist spin. The Gluck twists along branched twist spins are studied by Fintushel, Gordon and Pao. In this paper, we determine the 2-knot obtained from $K$ by the Gluck twist along $K^{\prime}$. As an application, we give infinitely many pairs of inequivalent branched twist spins whose complements are homeomorphic…
A companion paper to "On knot Floer homology in branched double covers" applied to braided branched loci. We reprove the main result of that paper concerning alternating branched loci when projected to an annulus, without using Khovanov homology. This provides two advantages: 1) the results hold for integer coefficients and 2) the spin^c structures are more readily discernable. We apply this result to a branch locus which is a braid, and use the braid structure to find information about a fibered knot in the branched double cover. In some cases this provides all the information about the knot …
Let L be a link in an thickened annulus. We specify the embedding of this annulus in the three sphere, and consider its complement thought of as the axis to L. In the right circumstances this axis lifts to a null-homologous knot in the double branched cover of the three sphere, branched over the embedded copy of L. This paper shows that the knot Floer homology of this lift, with mod 2 coefficients, can be computed from a spectral sequence starting at a type of Khovanov homology already described by Asaeda, Przytycki, and Sikora. We extend the known results about this type of Khovanov homology,…
We show that the 3-fold cyclic branched cover of any genus 2 two-bridge knot $K_{[-2q,2s,-2t,2l]}$ is an L-space and its fundamental group is not left-orderable. Therefore the family of 3-fold cyclic branched cover of any genus 2 two-bridge knot $K_{[-2q,2s,-2t,2l]}$ verifies the $L$-space conjecture. We also show that if $K_{[2k,-2l]}$ is a 2-bridge knot with $k\geq 2$, $l>0$, then the fundamental group of the 5-fold cyclic branched cover of $K_{[2k,-2l]}$ is not left-orderable, which will complete the proof that the fundamental group of the 5-fold cyclic branched cover of any genus one two-b…
We give a construction of quandle cocycles from group cocycles, especially, for any integer p \geq 3, quandle cocycles of the dihedral quandle R_p from group cocycles of the cyclic group Z/p. We will show that a group 3-cocycle of Z/p gives rise to a non-trivial quandle 3-cocycle of R_p. When p is an odd prime, since dim_{F_p} H_Q^3(R_p; F_p) = 1, our 3-cocycle is a constant multiple of the Mochizuki 3-cocycle up to coboundary. Dually, we construct a group cycle represented by a cyclic branched covering branched along a knot K from the quandle cycle associated with a colored diagram of K.
For a given knot, we study the minimal number of positive eigenvalues of the double branched cover over spanning surfaces for the knot. The value gives a lower bound for various genera, the dealternating number and the alternation number of knots, and we prove that Batson's bound for the non-orientable 4-genus gives an estimate of the value. In addition, we use the value to give a necessary condition for being quasi-alternating.
Let K be a knot in an integral homology 3-sphere and let B denote the 2-fold branched cover of the integral homology sphere branched along K. We construct a map from the slice of characters with trace free along meridians in the SL(2, C)-character variety of the knot exterior to the SL(2, C)-character variety of 2-fold branched cover B. When this map is surjective, it describes the slice as the 2-fold branched cover over the SL(2, C)-character variety of B with branched locus given by the abelian characters, whose preimage is precisely the set of metabelian characters. We show that each of met…
We study the relationship between Ng's abelian cord ring and SL(2,C) characters of the two-fold branched cover $Σ(K)$. Augmentations, and their corresponding rank, play a central role in the relationship. Our study also leads to a correspondence between trace-free SL(2,C) characters of a knot complement and augmentations. Whether the trace-free character is metabelian or not is determined by the rank of the corresponding augmentation. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given on the augmentation for it to correspond to an SU(2) character. This provides an effective tool for finding represe…
We study contact manifolds that arise as cyclic branched covers of transverse knots in the standard contact 3-sphere. We discuss properties of these contact manifolds and describe them in terms of open books and contact surgeries. In many cases we show that such branched covers are contactomorphic for smoothly isotopic transverse knots with the same self-linking number. These pairs of knots include most of the non-transversely simple knots of Birman-Menasco and Ng-Ozsvath-Thurston.
We give an extension of Fox's formula of the Alexander polynomial for double branched covers over the three-sphere. Our formula provides the Reidemeister torsion of a double branched cover along a knot for a non-trivial one dimensional representation by the product of two factors derived from the knot group. One of the factors is determined by the twisted Alexander polynomial and the other is determined by a rational function on the character variety. As an application, we show that these products distinguish isotopy classes of two-bridge knots up to mirror images.
It is known that a presentation of the knot group of a branched twist spin is obtained from a Wirtinger presentation of the original 1-knot group by adding a generator corresponding to a regular orbit of the circle action and a certain relator. In particular, the additional generator is an element of the center of the knot group. In this paper, we focus on ${\rm SL}_2(\mathbb{Z}_3)$-representations and dihedral group representations. For the former case, we give a sufficient condition for the existence of an ${\rm SL}_2(\mathbb{Z}_3)$-representation for a branched twist spin. For the latter ca…
Prime power fold cyclic branched covers along smoothly slice knots all bound rational homology balls. This phenomenon, however, does not characterize slice knots. In this paper, we give a new construction of non-slice knots that have the above property. The sliceness obstruction comes from computing twisted Alexander polynomials, and we introduce new techniques to simplify their calculation.
We define sink marks for branched complexes and find conditions for them to determine a branched surface structure. These will be used to construct branched surfaces in knot and tangle complements. We will extend Delman's theorem and prove that a Montesinos knot $K$ of length at least 3 has a persistently laminar branched surface unless it is equivalent to $K(1/2q_1,\, 1/q_2,\, 1/q_3,\, -1)$ for some positive integers $q_i$. In most cases these branched surfaces are genuine, in which case $K$ admits no atoroidal Seifert fibered surgery. It will also be shown that there are many persistently la…
We use grid diagrams to give a combinatorial algorithm for computing the knot Floer homology of the pullback of a knot K in its m-fold cyclic branched cover Sigma^m(K), and we give computations when m=2 for over fifty three-bridge knots with up to eleven crossings.
Recently, Mullins calculated the Casson-Walker invariant of the 2-fold cyclic branched cover of an oriented link in S^3 in terms of its Jones polynomial and its signature, under the assumption that the 2-fold branched cover is a rational homology 3-sphere. Using elementary principles, we provide a similar calculation for the general case. In addition, we calculate the LMO invariant of the p-fold branched cover of twisted knots in S^3 in terms of the Kontsevich integral of the knot.
We give uniform, explicit, and simple face-pairing descriptions of all the branched cyclic covers of the 3-sphere, branched over two-bridge knots. Our method is to use the bi-twisted face-pairing constructions of Cannon, Floyd, and Parry; these examples show that the bi-twist construction is often efficient and natural. Finally, we give applications to computations of fundamental groups and homology of these branched cyclic covers.
We prove that any knot or link in any 3-manifold can be nicely decomposed (splitted) by a filling Dehn sphere. This has interesting consequences in the study of branched coverings over knots and links. We give an algorithm for computing Johansson diagrams of filling Dehn surfaces out from coverings of 3-manifolds branched over knots or links.
We give the rectangle condition for strong irreducibility of Heegaard splittings of $3$-manifolds with non-empty boundary. We apply this to a generalized Heegaard splitting of a $2$-fold covering of $S^3$ branched along a link. The condition implies that any thin meridional level surface in the link complement is incompressible. We also show that the additivity of knot width holds for a composite knot satisfying the condition.
By studying the Heegaard Floer homology of the preimage of a knot K in S^3 inside its double branched cover, we develop simple obstructions to K having finite order in the classical smooth concordance group. As an application, we prove that all 2-bridge knots of crossing number at most 12 for which the smooth concordance order was previously unknown have infinite smooth concordance order.
We study the left-orderability of the fundamental groups of cyclic branched covers of links which admit co-oriented taut foliations. In particular we do this for cyclic branched covers of fibred knots in integer homology $3$-spheres and cyclic branched covers of closed braids. The latter allows us to complete the proof of the L-space conjecture for closed, connected, orientable, irreducible $3$-manifolds containing a genus $1$ fibred knot. We also prove that the universal abelian cover of a manifold obtained by generic Dehn surgery on a hyperbolic fibred knot in an integer homology $3$-sphere …
We show that the fundamental group of the double branched cover of an infinite family of homologically thin, non-quasi-alternating knots is not left-orderable, giving further support for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon, and Watson that an irreducible rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if its fundamental group is not left-orderable.
