Ozsvath and Szabo have defined a knot concordance invariant tau that bounds the 4-ball genus of a knot. Here we discuss shortcuts to its computation. We include examples of Alexander polynomial one knots for which the invariant is nontrivial, including all iterated untwisted positive doubles of knots with nonnegative Thurston-Bennequin number, such as the trefoil, and explicit computations for several 10 crossing knots. We also note that a new proof of the Slice-Bennequin Inequality quickly follows from these techniques.
Sarkar and Wang have given a combinatorial algorithm for computing Heegaard Floer homology and Plamenevskaya has improved their method to compute Ozsvath-Szabo invariant. In this paper, applying the combinatorial method to stabilizations of an open book, we prove basic properties of Ozsvath-Szabo invariant.
Based on work of Rasmussen, we construct a concordance invariant associated to the knot Floer complex, and exhibit examples in which this invariant gives arbitrarily better bounds on the 4-ball genus than the Ozsvath-Szabo tau invariant.
We construct an invariant of open four-manifolds using the Heegaard Floer theory of Ozsvath and Szabo. We show that there is a manifold X homeomorphic to R^4 for which the invariant is non-trivial, showing that X is an exotic R^4.
We give formulae for the Ozsvath-Szabo invariants of 4-manifolds X obtained by fiber sum of two manifolds M_1, M_2 along surfaces S_1, S_2 having trivial normal bundle and genus g>0. The formulae follow from a general theorem on the Ozsvath-Szabo invariants of the result of gluing two 4-manifolds along a common boundary, which is phrased in terms of relative invariants of the pieces. These relative invariants take values in a version of Heegaard Floer homology with coefficients in modules over certain Novikov rings; the fiber sum formula follows from the theorem that this "perturbed" version o…
We use grid diagrams to investigate the Ozsvath-Szabo concordance invariant tau, and to prove that |tau(K_1)-tau(K_2)|<=g, whenever there is a genus g knot cobordism joining K_1 to K_2. This leads to an entirely grid diagram-based proof of Kronheimer-Mrowka's theorem, formerly known as the Milnor conjecture.
We give new tightness criteria for positive surgeries along knots in the 3-sphere, generalising results of Lisca and Stipsicz, and Sahamie. The main tools will be Honda, Kazez and Matic's, Ozsvath and Szabo's Floer-theoretic contact invariants. We compute the Ozsvath and Szabo's invariant of positive contact surgeries along Legendrian knots in the 3-sphere in terms of the classical invariants of the knot. We also combine a Legendrian cabling construction with contact surgeries to get results about rational contact surgeries.
Given a smooth, compact four-manifold $X$ viewed as a cobordism from the empty set to its connected boundary, we demonstrate how to use the data of a trisection map $π:X^{4} \to \mathbb{D}^{2}$ to compute the induced cobordism maps on Heegaard Floer homology associated to $X$.
For any rational homology 3-sphere and one of its spin^{c}-structures, Ozsvath and Szabo defined a topological invariant, called d-invariant. Given a knot in the 3-sphere, the d-invariants associated with the prime-power-fold branched covers of the knot, obstruct the smooth sliceness of the knot. These invariants bear some structural resemblances to Casson-Gordon invariants, which obstruct the topological sliceness of a knot. Se-Goo Kim found a polynomial splitting property for Casson-Gordon invariants. In this paper, we show a similar result for Ozsvath and Szabo's d-invariants. We give an ap…
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 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 prove various results on contact structures obtained by contact surgery on a single Legendrian knot in the standard contact three--sphere. Our main tool are the contact Ozsvath--Szabo invariants.
We study the behavior of the Ozsvath-Szabo and Rasmussen knot concordance invariants tau and s on K(m,n), the (m,n)-cable of a knot K where m and n are relatively prime. We show that for every knot K and for any fixed positive integer m, both of the invariants evaluated on K(m,n) differ from their value on the torus knot T(m,n) by a fixed constant for all but finitely many n>0. Combining this result together with Hedden's extensive work on the behavior of tau on (m,mr+1)-cables yields bounds on the value of tau on any (m,n)-cable of K. In addition, several of Hedden's obstructions for cables b…
We study the invariants of surfaces in 4-manifolds extracted from the Seiberg-Witten and the Ozsvath-Szabo invariants of their fiber sums with auxiliary Lefschetz fibrations. Such invariants involve relative Spin_c structures and can be treated as refinements of the usual Seiberg-Witten and Ozsvath-Szabo invariants. We prove for instance the adjunction inequality for membranes, which estimates their genus.
In this article we present infinitely many 3-manifolds admitting infinitely many universally tight contact structures each with trivial Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariants. By known properties of these invariants the contact structures constructed here are non weakly symplectically fillable.
We discuss functoriality properties of the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant, and expose a number of results which seemed destined for folklore. We clarify the (in)dependence of the invariant on the basepoint, prove that it is functorial with respect to contactomorphisms, and show that it is strongly functorial under Stein cobordisms.
In this article we provide an infinite family of weakly symplectically fillable contact structures with trivial Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariants over Z/2Z. As a consequence of this fact, we show how Heegaard-Floer theory can distinguish between weakly and strongly fillable contact structures.
The main goal of the present article is the computation of the Heegaard Floer homology introduced by Ozsvath and Szabo for a family of plumbed rational homology 3-spheres. The main motivation is the study of the Seiberg-Witten type invariants of links of normal surface singularities.
Let νbe any integer-valued additive knot invariant that bounds the smooth 4-genus of a knot K, |ν(K)| <= g_4(K), and determines the 4-ball genus of positive torus knots, ν(T_{p,q}) = (p-1)(q-1)/2. Either of the knot concordance invariants of Ozsvath-Szabo or Rasmussen, suitably normalized, have these properties. Let D_{\pm}(K,t) denote the positive or negative t-twisted double of K. We prove that if ν(D_{+}(K,t)) = \pm 1, then ν(D_{-}(K,t)) = 0. It is also shown that ν(D_{+}(K,t))= 1 for all t <= TB(K) and ν(D_{+}(K, t)) = 0 for all t \ge -TB(-K), where TB(K) denotes the Thurston-Bennequin num…
Thanks to a result of Lisca and Matic and a refinement by Plamenevskaya, it is known that on a 4-manifold with boundary Stein structures with non-isomorphic Spinc structures induce contact structures with distinct Ozsvath-Szabo invariants. Here we give an infinite family of examples showing that converse of Lisca-Matic-Plamenevskaya theorem does not hold in general. Our examples arise from Mazur type corks.
Sarkar and Wang proved that the hat version of Heegaard Floer homology group of a closed oriented 3-manifold is combinatorial starting from an arbitrary nice Heegaard diagram and in fact every closed oriented 3-manifold admits such a Heegaard diagram. Plamenevskaya showed that the contact Ozsvath-Szabo invariant is combinatorial once we are given an open book decomposition compatible with a contact structure. The idea is to combine the algorithm of Sarkar and Wang with the recent description of the contact Ozsvath-Szabo invariant due to Honda, Kazez and Matic. Here we simply observe that the h…
Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariants are a powerful way to prove tightness of contact structures but they are known to vanish in the presence of Giroux torsion. In this paper we construct, on infinitely many manifolds, infinitely many isotopy classes of universally tight torsion free contact structures whose Ozsvath-Szabo invariant vanishes. We also discuss the relation between these invariants and an invariant on T^3 and construct other examples of new phenomena in Heegaard--Floer theory. Along the way, we prove two conjectures of K Honda, W Kazez and G Matic about their contact topological quant…
We characterize L-spaces which are Seifert fibered over the 2-sphere in terms of taut foliations, transverse foliations and transverse contact structures. We give a sufficient condition for certain contact Seifert fibered 3-manifolds with e_0=-1 to have nonzero contact Ozsvath--Szabo invariants. This yields an algorithm for deciding whether a given small Seifert fibered L-space carries a contact structure with nonvanishing contact Ozsvath--Szabo invariant. As an application, we prove the existence of tight contact structures on some 3-manifolds obtained by integral surgery along a positive tor…
We show that Ozsváth-Szabó's bordered algebra used to efficiently compute knot Floer homology is a graded flat deformation of the regular block of a $\mathfrak{q}$-presentable quotient of parabolic category $\mathcal{O}$. We identify the endomorphism algebra of a minimal projective generator for this block with an explicit quotient of the Ozsváth-Szabó algebra using Sartori's diagrammatic formulation of the endomorphism algebra. Both of these algebras give rise to categorifications of tensor products of the vector representation $V^{\otimes n}$ for $U_q(\mathfrak{gl}(1|1))$. Our isomorphism al…
Using the knot Floer homology filtration, we define invariants associated to a knot in a three-manifold possessing non-vanishing Floer co(homology) classes. In the case of the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant we obtain an invariant of knots in a contact three-manifold. This invariant provides an upper bound for the Thurston-Bennequin plus rotation number of any Legendrian realization of the knot. We use it to demonstrate the first systematic construction of prime knots in contact manifolds other than the three-sphere with negative maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant. Perhaps more interesting, …
In this paper we prove a vanishing theorem for the contact Ozsvath--Szabo invariants of certain contact 3--manifolds having positive Giroux torsion. We use this result to establish similar vanishing results for contact structures with underlying 3--manifolds admitting either a torus fibration over the circle or a Seifert fibration over an orientable base. We also show -- using standard techniques from contact topology -- that if a contact 3--manifold (Y,ξ) has positive Giroux torsion then there exists a Stein cobordism from (Y,ξ) to a contact 3--manifold (Y,ξ') such that (Y,ξ) is obtained from…
In this paper we examine the relationship between various types of positivity for knots and the concodance invariant tau discovered by Ozsvath and Szabo and independently by Rasmussen. The main result shows that, for fibered knots, tau characterizes strong quasipositivity. This is quantified by the statement that for K fibered, tau(K)=g(K) if and only if K is strongly quasipositive. In addition, we survey existing results regarding tau and forms of positivity and highlight several consequences concerning the types of knots which are (strongly) (quasi) positive. For instance, we show that any k…
Using the equivalence between the renormalized Euler characteristic of Ozsvath and Szabo, and the Turaev torsion normalized by the Casson-Walker invariant, we make calculations for $S^3_{p/q}(K)$. An alternative proof of a theorem by Ozsváth and Szabó on $L$-space surgery obstructions is provided.
Let p and n be positive integers with p>1, and let E(p,n) be the oriented 3-manifold obtained by performing pn(p-1)-1 surgery on a positive torus knot of type (p, pn+1). We prove that E(2,n) does not carry tight contact structures for any n, while E(p,n) carries tight contact structures for any n and any odd p. In particular, we exhibit the first infinite family of closed, oriented, irreducible 3-manifolds which do not support tight contact structures. We obtain the nonexistence results via standard methods of contact topology, and the existence results by using a quite delicate computation of…
As proved by Hedden and Ording, there exist knots for which the Ozsvath-Szabo and Rasmussen smooth concordance invariants, tau and s, differ. The Hedden-Ording examples have nontrivial Alexander polynomials and are not topologically slice. It is shown in this note that a simple manipulation of the Hedden-Ording examples yields a topologically slice Alexander polynomial one knot for which tau and s differ. Manolescu and Owens have previously found a concordance invariant that is independent of both tau and s on knots of polynomial one, and as a consequence have shown that the smooth concordance…
In 2001, Khovanov and Seidel constructed a faithful action of the (m+1)-strand braid group on the derived category of left modules over a quiver algebra, A_m. We interpret the Hochschild homology of the Khovanov-Seidel braid invariant as a direct summand of the sutured Khovanov homology of the annular braid closure.
Let S^3_r(K) be the oriented 3--manifold obtained by rational r-surgery on a knot K in S^3. Using the contact Ozsvath-Szabo invariants we prove, for a class of knots K containing all the algebraic knots, that S^3_r(K) carries positive, tight contact structures for every r not= 2g_s(K)-1, where g_s(K) is the slice genus of K. This implies, in particular, that the Brieskorn spheres -Sigma(2,3,4) and -Sigma(2,3,3) carry tight, positive contact structures. As an application of our main result we show that for each m in N there exists a Seifert fibered rational homology 3-sphere M_m carrying at lea…
We use the Ozsvath-Szabo theory of Floer homology to define an invariant of knot complements in three-manifolds. This invariant takes the form of a filtered chain complex, which we call CF_r. It carries information about the Floer homology of large integral surgeries on the knot. Using the exact triangle, we derive information about other surgeries on knots, and about the maps on Floer homology induced by certain surgery cobordisms. We define a certain class of \em{perfect} knots in S^3 for which CF_r has a particularly simple form. For these knots, formal properties of the Ozsvath-Szabo theor…
Ozsvath and Szabo recently constructed an algebraically defined invariant of tangles which takes the form of a DA bimodule. This invariant is expected to compute knot Floer homology. The authors have a similar construction for open braids and their plat closures which can be viewed as a filtered DA bimodule over the same algebras. For a closed diagram, this invariant computes the Khovanov homology of the knot or link. We show that forgetting the filtration, our DA bimodules are homotopy equivalent to a suitable version of the Ozsvath- Szabo bimodules. In addition to giving a relationship betwe…
Suppose that S is a surface with boundary and that g and h are diffeomorphisms of S which restrict to the identity on the boundary. Let Y_g, Y_h, and Y_{hg} be the three-manifolds with open book decompositions given by (S,g), (S,h), and (S,hg), respectively. We show that the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant is natural under a comultiplication map on Heegaard Floer homology. It follows that if the contact invariants associated to the open books (S, g) and (S, h) are non-zero then the contact invariant associated to the open book (S, hg) is also non-zero. We extend this comultiplication to a map …
If (S,h) is an open book with disconnected binding then we can form a new open book (S',h') by capping off one of the boundary components of S with a disk. We define a U-equivariant map on Heegaard Floer homology which sends c^+(S',h') to c^+(S,h), and we discuss various applications. In particular, we determine the support genera of almost all contact structures compatible with genus one, one boundary component open books. In addition, we compute the 3-dimensional invariant associated to any contact structure with non-vanishing contact invariant which is compatible with a genus one open book …
Fintushel and Stern have proved that if S \subset X is a symplectic surface in a symplectic 4-manifold such that S has simply-connected complement and nonnegative self-intersection, then there are infinitely many topologically equivalent but smoothly distinct embedded surfaces homologous to S. Here we extend this result to include symplectic surfaces whose self-intersection is bounded below by 2-2g, where g is the genus of S. We make use of tools from Heegaard Floer theory, and include several results that may be of independent interest. Specifically we give an analogue for Ozsvath-Szabo invar…
The nonorientable 4-genus is an invariant of knots which has been studied by many authors, including Gilmer and Livingston, Batson, and Ozsváth, Stipsicz, and Szabó. Given a nonorientable surface $F \subset B^4$ with $\partial F = K\subset S^3$ a knot, an analysis of the existing methods for bounding and computing the nonorientable 4-genus reveals relationships between the first Betti number $β_1$ of $F$ and the normal Euler class $e$ of $F$. This relationship yields a geography problem: given a knot $K$, what is the set of realizable pairs $(e(F), β_1(F))$ where $F\subset B^4$ is a nonorienta…
We introduce a refinement of the Ozsvath-Szabo complex associated to a balanced sutured manifold $(X,τ)$ by Juhasz. An algebra $A_τ$ is associated to the boundary of a sutured manifold and a filtration of its generators by $H^2(X,\partial X;\Z)$ is defined. For a fixed Spin^c structure $s$ over the manifold $X'$, which is obtained from $X$ by filling out the sutures, the Ozsvath-Szabo chain complex $CF(X,τ,s)$ is then defined as a chain complex with coefficients in $A_τ$ and filtered by $\SpinC(X,τ)$. The filtered chain homotopy type of this chain complex is an invariant of $(X,τ)$ and the Spi…
In this paper we construct a sequence of integer-valued concordance invariants $ν_n(K)$ that generalize the Ozsváth-Szabó $ν$-invariant and the Hom-Wu $ν^+$-invariant.
In this paper, we study the behavior of $Υ_K(t)$ under the cabling operation, where $Υ_K(t)$ is the knot concordance invariant defined by Ozsváth, Stipsicz, and Szabó, associated to a knot $K\subset S^3$. The main result is an inequality relating $Υ_K(t)$ and $Υ_{K_{p,q}}(t)$, which generalizes the inequalities of Hedden and Van Cott on the Ozsváth-Szabó $τ$-invariant. As applications, we give a computation of $Υ_{(T_{2,-3})_{2,2n+1}}(t)$ for $n\geq 8$, and we also show that the set of iterated $(p,1)$-cables of $Wh^{+}(T_{2,3})$ for any $p\geq 2$ span an infinite-rank summand of topologically…
As a corollary of work of Ozsvath and Szabo [math.GT/0301149], it is shown that the classical concordance group of algebraically slice knots has an infinite cyclic summand and in particular is not a divisible group.
This largely technical paper is divided into two parts: part I: An account of P. Ozsvath and Z. Szabo's construction of the link surgery spectral sequence. There are no new results here, but this part slightly modifies and expands their proof and is included as an aid to part II. part II: Some modifications of the spectral sequence suitable for knot Floer homology; an exposition of the invariance of the spectral sequence, under a suitable equivalence, from alterations of the underlying bouquet; and an account of the morphisms induced on the spectral sequences by suitable four dimensional cobor…
The knot concordance invariant Upsilon, recently defined by Ozsvath, Stipsicz, and Szabo, takes values in the group of piecewise linear functions on the closed interval [0,2]. This paper presents a description of one approach to defining Upsilon and of proving its basic properties related to the knot 3-genus, 4-genus, and concordance genus.
Ozsvath-Stipsicz-Szabo recently defined a one-parameter family, upsilon of K at t, of concordance invariants associated to the knot Floer complex. We compare their invariant to the {-1, 0, 1}-valued concordance invariant epsilon, which is also associated to the knot Floer complex. In particular, we give an example of a knot K with upsilon uniformly equal to zero but epsilon non-zero.
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.
We prove a surgery formula for the renormalized Euler characteristic of Ozsvath and Szabo. Equality between this Euler cahracteristic and the Seiberg-Witten invariant follows for rational homology three-spheres.
In this survey article, we discuss several different knot concordance invariants coming from the Heegaard Floer homology package of Ozsvath and Szabo. Along the way, we prove that if two knots are concordant, then their knot Floer complexes satisfy a certain type of stable equivalence.
We introduce a generalization of the Ozsváth-Szabó $τ$-invariant to links by studying a filtered version of link grid homology. We prove that this invariant remains unchanged under strong concordance and we show that it produces a lower bound for the slice genus of a link. We show that this bound is sharp for torus links and we also give an application to Legendrian link invariants in the standard contact 3-sphere.
Using the Heegaard Floer homology of Ozsvath and Szabo we investigate obstructions to definite intersection pairings bounded by rational homology spheres. As an application we obtain new lower bounds for the four-ball genus of Montesinos links.
Using the grid diagram formulation of knot Floer homology, Ozsvath, Szabo and Thurston defined an invariant of transverse knots in the tight contact 3-sphere. Shortly afterwards, Lisca, Ozsvath, Stipsicz and Szabo defined an invariant of transverse knots in arbitrary contact 3-manifolds using open book decompositions. It has been conjectured that these invariants agree where they are both defined. We prove this fact by defining yet another invariant of transverse knots, showing that this third invariant agrees with the two mentioned above.
Cha and Kim proved that if a knot K is not algebraically slice, then no iterated Bing double of K is concordant to the unlink. We prove that if K has nontrivial signature $σ$, then the n-iterated Bing double of K is not concordant to any boundary link with boundary surfaces of genus less than $2^{n-1}σ$. The same result holds with $σ$ replaced by $2τ$, twice the Ozsvath-Szabo knot concordance invariant.
The existence of topologically slice knots that are of infinite order in the knot concordance group followed from Freedman's work on topological surgery and Donaldson's gauge theoretic approach to 4-manifolds. Here, as an application of Ozsvath and Szabo's Heegaard-Floer theory, we show the existence of an infinite subgroup of the smooth concordance group generated by topologically slice knots of concordance order two. In addition, no nontrivial element in this subgroup can be represented by a knot with Alexander polynomial one.
We describe an action of the concordance group of knots in the three-sphere on concordances of knots in arbitrary 3-manifolds. As an application we define the notion of almost-concordance between knots. After some basic results, we prove the existence of non-trivial almost-concordance classes in all non-abelian 3-manifolds. Afterwards, we focus the attention on the case of lens spaces, and use a modified version of the Ozsvath-Szabo-Rasmussen's tau-invariant to obstruct almost-concordances and prove that each L(p,1) admits infinitely many nullhomologous non almost-concordant knots. Finally we …
Using the theory of involutive Heegaard Floer knot theory developed by Hendricks-Manolescu, we define two involutive analogs of the Upsilon knot concordance invariant of Ozsvath-Stipsicz-Szabo. These involutive invariants are piecewise linear functions defined on the interval [0,2]. Each is a concordance invariant and provides bounds on the three-genus of a knot.
