We show that several torsion free 3-manifold groups are not left-orderable. Our examples are groups of cyclic branched covers of S^3 branched along links.
The figure eight knot provides simple nontrivial examples. The groups arising in these examples are known as Fibonacci groups which we show not to be left-orderable. Many other examples of non-orderable groups are obtained by taking 3-fold branched covers of S^3 branched along various hyperbolic 2-bridge knots. The manifold obtained in such a way from the 5_2 knot is of special interest as it is conjectured to be the hyperbolic 3-manifold with the smallest volume.
For any hyperbolic twist 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 $r$ satisfies the inequality $0\le r \le 4$.
We show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on the knot $5_2$, which is the two-bridge knot corresponding to the rational number 3/7, has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ satisfies $0\le r\le 4$.
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.
There are various results that frame left-orderability of a group as a geometric property. Indeed, the fundamental group of a 3-manifold is left-orderable whenever the first Betti number is positive; in the case that the first Betti number is zero this property is closely tied to the existence of certain nice foliations. As a result, many large classes of 3-manifolds, including knot complements, are known to have left-orderable fundamental group. However, though the complement of a knot has left-orderable fundamental group, the result of Dehn surgery is a closed 3-manifold that need not have t…
We develop a method to show the fundamental group of the double branched covering of a link is not left-orderable by introducing the notion of the coarse presentation. As in the usual group presentations, a coarse presentation is given by a set of generators and relations, but inequalities are allowed as relations. By using coarse presentation, we give a family of links whose double branched covering has the non-left-orderable fundamental group. Our family of links includes many known examples and new examples.
Previous work of the authors establishes a criterion on the fundamental group of a knot complement that determines when Dehn surgery on the knot will have a fundamental group that is not left-orderable. We provide a refinement of this criterion by introducing the notion of a decayed knot; it is shown that Dehn surgery on decayed knots produces surgery manifolds that have non-left-orderable fundamental group for all sufficiently positive surgeries. As an application, we prove that sufficiently positive cables of decayed knots are always decayed knots. These results mirror properties of L-space …
Boyer, Gordon, and Watson have conjectured that an irreducible rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if its fundamental group is not left-orderable. Since large classes of L-spaces can be produced from Dehn surgery on knots in the 3-sphere, it is natural to ask what conditions on the knot group are sufficient to imply that the quotient associated to Dehn surgery is not left-orderable. Clay and Watson develop a criterion for determining the left-orderability of this quotient group and use it to verify the conjecture for surgeries on certain L-space twisted torus knots. We general…
Let K be a knot in the 3--sphere. An r-surgery on K is left-orderable if the resulting 3--manifold K(r) of the surgery has left-orderable fundamental group, and an r-surgery on K is called an L-space surgery if K(r) is an L-space. A conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson says that non-reducing surgeries on K can be classified into left-orderable surgeries or L-space surgeries. We introduce a way to provide knots with left-orderable, non-L-space surgeries. As an application we present infinitely many hyperbolic knots on each of which every nontrivial surgery is a hyperbolic, left-orderable, non…
We show that a knot has a non left-orderable surgery if the knot group admits a generalized Baumslag-Solitar relator and satisfies certain conditions on a longitude of the knot. As an application, it is shown that certain positively twisted torus knots admit non left-orderable surgeries.
Boyer, Gordon, and Watson have conjectured that an irreducible rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if its fundamental group is not left-orderable. Since Dehn surgeries on knots in $S^3$ can produce large families of L-spaces, it is natural to examine the conjecture on these 3-manifolds. Greene, Lewallen, and Vafaee have proved that all 1-bridge braids are L-space knots. In this paper, we consider three families of 1-bridge braids. First we calculate the knot groups and peripheral subgroups. We then verify the conjecture on the three cases by applying the criterion developed by…
Examples suggest that there is a correspondence between L-spaces and 3-manifolds whose fundamental groups cannot be left-ordered. In this paper we establish the equivalence of these conditions for several large classes of such manifolds. In particular, we prove that they are equivalent for any closed, connected, orientable, geometric 3-manifold that is non-hyperbolic, a family which includes all closed, connected, orientable Seifert fibred spaces. We also show that they are equivalent for the 2-fold branched covers of non-split alternating links. To do this we prove that the fundamental group …
Let $Y$ be a closed, connected, orientable three-manifold admitting a genus one open book decomposition with one boundary component. We prove that if $Y$ is an L-space, then the fundamental group of $Y$ is not left-orderable. This answers a question posed by John Baldwin.
A rational number $r$ is called a left orderable slope of a knot $K \subset S^3$ if the 3-manifold obtained from $S^3$ by $r$-surgery along $K$ has left orderable fundamental group. In this paper we consider the double twist knots $C(k,l)$ in the Conway notation. For any positive integers $m$ and $n$, we show that if $K$ is a double twist knot of the form $C(2m,-2n)$, $C(2m+1, 2n)$ or $C(2m+1, -2n)$ then there is an explicit unbounded interval $I$ such that any rational number $r \in I$ is a left orderable slope of $K$.
We show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on a large class of two-bridge knots has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ satisfies certain conditions. This result gives a supporting evidence to a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson that relates $L$-spaces and the left-orderability of their fundamental groups.
Following the classification of genus one fibered knots in lens spaces by Baker, we determine hyperbolic genus one fibered knots in lens spaces on whose all integral Dehn surgeries yield closed 3-manifolds with left-orderable fundamental groups.
Greene, Lewallen and Vafaee characterized $(1,1)$ L-space knots in $S^3$ and lens space in the notation of coherent reduced $(1,1)$-diagrams. We analyze these diagrams, and deduce an explicit description of these knots. With the new description, we prove that any L-space obtained by Dehn surgery on a $(1,1)$-knot in $S^3$ has non-left-orderable fundamental group.
We show that if $K$ is an L-space twisted torus knot $T^{l,m}_{p,pk \pm 1}$ with $p \ge 2$, $k \ge 1$, $m \ge 1$ and $1 \le l \le p-1$, then the fundamental group of the $3$-manifold obtained by $\frac{r}{s}$-surgery along $K$ is not left-orderable whenever $\frac{r}{s} \ge 2 g(K) -1$, where $g(K)$ is the genus of $K$.
We show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on the hyperbolic twist knot $K_m, \, m \ge 2$, has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ satisfies the condition $r \in (-4,2m)$ if $m$ is even, and $r \in [0,4] \cup (\frac{4m}ω+4, 2m+4)$ if $m$ is odd, where $ω>1$ is the unique real solution of the equation $x e^{x}=4m$.
For each connected alternating tangle, we provide an infinite family of non-left-orderable L-spaces. This gives further support for Conjecture [3] of Boyer, Gordon, and Watson that is a rational homology 3-sphere is an L-space if and only if it is non-left-orderable. These 3-manifolds are obtained as Dehn fillings of the double branched covering of any alternating encircled tangle. We give a presentation of these non-left-orderable L-spaces as double branched coverings of S^3, branched over some specified links that turn out to be hyperbolic. We show that the obtained families include many non…
Motivated by recent activity in low-dimensional topology, we provide a new criterion for left-orderability of a group under the assumption that the group is circularly-orderable: A group $G$ is left-orderable if and only if $G \times \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ is circularly-orderable for all $n > 1$. This implies that every circularly-orderable group which is not left-orderable gives rise to a collection of positive integers that exactly encode the obstruction to left-orderability, which we call the obstruction spectrum. We precisely describe the behaviour of the obstruction spectrum with respect…
We define the property (D) for nontrivial knots. We show that the fundamental group of the manifold obtained by Dehn surgery on a knot $K$ with property (D) with slope $\frac{p}{q}\ge 2g(K)-1$ is not left orderable. By making full use of the fixed point method, we prove that (1) nontrivial knots which are closures of positive $1$-bridge braids have property (D); (2) L-space satellite knots, with positive $1$-bridge braid patterns, and companion with property (D), have property (D); (3) the fundamental group of the manifold obtained by Dehn filling on $v2503$ is not left orderable. Additionally…
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.
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.
We investigate the orderability properties of fundamental groups of 3-dimensional manifolds. Many 3-manifold groups support left-invariant orderings, including all compact P^2-irreducible manifolds with positive first Betti number. For seven of the eight geometries (excluding hyperbolic) we are able to characterize which manifolds' groups support a left-invariant or bi-invariant ordering. We also show that manifolds modelled on these geometries have virtually bi-orderable groups. The question of virtual orderability of 3-manifold groups in general, and even hyperbolic manifolds, remains open, …
This is a draft of a book submitted for publication by the AMS. Its theme is the remarkable interplay, accelerating in the last few decades, between topology and the theory of orderable groups, with applications in both directions. It begins with an introduction to orderable groups and their algebraic properties. Many of the algebraic results are proved by topological methods, via consideration of the space of orderings. After a discussion Hölder's theorem and some dynamical aspects of orderable groups, we provide explicit orderings of important groups in topology: free groups and most surface…
We show that the fundamental group of the $3$-manifold obtained by $\frac{p}{q}$-surgery along the $(n-2)$-twisted $(3,3m+2)$-torus knot, with $n,m \ge 1$, is not left-orderable if $\frac{p}{q} \ge 2n + 6m-3$ and is left-orderable if $\frac{p}{q}$ is sufficiently close to $0$.
In this paper, we prove that the fundamental group of the manifold obtained by Dehn surgery along a $(-2,3,2s+1)$-pretzel knot ($s\ge 3$) with slope $\frac{p}{q}$ is not left orderable if $\frac{p}{q}\ge 2s+3$, and that it is left orderable if $\frac{p}{q}$ is in a neighborhood of zero depending on $s$.
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 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…
Motivated by the recent result that left-orderability of a group $G$ is intimately connected to circular orderability of direct products $G \times \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$, we provide necessary and sufficient cohomological conditions that such a direct product be circularly orderable. As a consequence of the main theorem, we arrive at a new characterization for the fundamental group of a rational homology 3-sphere to be left-orderable. Our results imply that for mapping class groups of once-punctured surfaces, and other groups whose actions on $S^1$ are cohomologically rigid, the products $G \t…
We show that any exceptional non-trivial Dehn surgery on a hyperbolic two-bridge knot yields a 3-manifold whose fundamental group is left-orderable. This gives a new supporting evidence for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson.
We are concerned with orderable groups and particularly those with orderings invariant not only under multiplication, but also under a given automorphism or family of automorphisms. Several applications to topology are given: we prove that the fundamental groups of hyperbolic nonorientable surfaces, and the groups of certain fibred knots are bi-orderable. Moreover, we show that the pure braid groups associated with hyperbolic nonorientable surfaces are left-orderable.
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.
We show that Dehn filling on the manifold $v2503$ results in a non-orderable space for all rational slopes in the interval $(-\infty , -1)$. This is consistent with the L-space conjecture, which predicts that all fillings will result in a non-orderable space for this manifold.
In this paper, we introduce the notion of circular orderability for quandles. We show that the set all right (respectively left) circular orderings of a quandle is a compact topological space. We also show that the space of right (respectively left) orderings of a quandle embeds in its space of right (respectively left) circular orderings. Examples of quandles that are not left circularly orderable and examples of quandles that are neither left nor right circularly orderable are given.
Let $M$ be a $\mathbb{Q}$-homology solid torus. In this paper, we give a cohomological criterion for the existence of an interval of left-orderable Dehn surgeries on $M$. We apply this criterion to prove that the two-bridge knot that corresponds to the continued fraction $[1,1,2,2,2j]$ for $j\geq 1$ admits an interval of left-orderable Dehn surgeries. This family of two-bridge knots gives some positive evidence for a question of Xinghua Gao.
It is well-known that there is a faithful representation of braid groups on automorphism groups of free groups, and it is also well-known that free groups are bi-orderable. We investigate which n-strand braids give rise to automorphisms which preserve some bi-ordering of the free group rank n. As a consequence of our work we find that of the two minimal volume hyperbolic 2-cusped orientable 3-manifolds, one has bi-orderable fundamental group whereas the other does not. We prove a similar result for the 1-cusped case, and have further results for more cusps. In addition, we study pseudo-Anosov …
We show that any exceptional non-trivial Dehn surgery on a twist knot, except the trefoil, yields a 3-manifold whose fundamental group is left-orderable. This is a generalization of a result of Clay, Lidman and Watson, and also gives a new supporting evidence for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson.
We consider the classical pretzel knots $P(a_1, a_2, a_3)$, where $a_1, a_2, a_3$ are positive odd integers. By using continuous paths of elliptic $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb R)$-representations, we show that (i) the 3-manifold obtained by $\frac{m}{l}$-surgery on $P(a_1, a_2, a_3)$ has left orderable fundamental group if $\frac{m}{l} < 1$, and (ii) the $n^{\mathrm{th}}$-cyclic branched cover of $P(a_1, a_2, a_3)$ has left orderable fundamental group if $n > 2π/ \arccos(1-2/(1+a_1 a_2 + a_2 a_3 + a_3 a_1))$.
We provide an alternative proof of a sufficient condition for the fundamental group of the $n^{th}$ cyclic branched cover of $S^3$ along a prime knot $K$ to be left-orderable, which is originally due to Boyer-Gordon-Watson. As an application of this sufficient condition, we show that for any $(p,q)$ two-bridge knot, with $p\equiv 3 \text{ mod } 4$, there are only finitely many cyclic branched covers whose fundamental groups are not left-orderable. This answers a question posed by D{\c a}bkowski, Przytycki and Togha.
We show that every irreducible toroidal integer homology sphere graph manifold has a left-orderable fundamental group. This is established by way of a specialization of a result due to Bludov and Glass for the almagamated products that arise, and in this setting work of Boyer, Rolfsen and Wiest may be applied. Our result then depends on input from 3-manifold topology and Heegaard Floer homology.
