An Ozsváth–Szabó Floer homology invariant of knots in a contact manifold

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 Ozsváth–Szabó 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 S³ with negative maximal Thurston–Bennequin invariant. Perhaps more interesting, our invariant provides a criterion for an open book to induce a tight contact structure. A corollary is that if a manifold possesses contact structures with distinct non-vanishing Ozsváth–Szabó invariants, then any fibered knot can realize the classical Eliashberg–Bennequin bound in at most one of these contact structures.     

A Formula for Khovanov Typ e Link Homology of Pretzel Knots

Khovanov type homology is a generalization of Khovanov homology. The main result of this paper is to give a recursive formula for Khovanov type homology of pretzel knots P (?n,?m, m). The computations reveal that the rank of the homology of pretzel knots is an invariant of n. The proof is based on a “shortcut” and two lemmas that recursively reduce the computational complexity of Khovanov type homology.     

On knot Floer homology and lens space surgeries

In an earlier paper, we used the absolute grading on Heegaard Floer homology HF⁺ to give restrictions on knots in S³ which admit lens space surgeries. The aim of the present article is to exhibit stronger restrictions on such knots, arising from knot Floer homology. One consequence is that the non-zero coefficients of the Alexander polynomial of such a knot are ±1. This information can in turn be used to prove that certain lens spaces are not obtained as integral surgeries on knots. In fact, combining our results with constructions of Berge, we classify lens spaces L(p,q) which arise as integral surgeries on knots in S³ with |p|?1500. Other applications include bounds on the four-ball genera of knots admitting lens space surgeries (which are sharp for Berge's knots), and a constraint on three-manifolds obtained as integer surgeries on alternating knots, which is closely to related to a theorem of Delman and Roberts.     

Some applications of Gabaiʼs internal hierarchy

Any Haken 3-manifold (possibly with boundary consisting of tori) can be transformed into a surface×S¹$\text{surface}\times S^1$ by a series of splitting and regluing along incompressible surfaces. This fact was proved by Gabai as an application of his sutured manifold theory. The first half of this paper provides a few technical details in the proof. In the second half of this paper, some applications of Gabai?s theorem to Heegaard Floer homology are given. We refine the known results about the Thurson norm and fibrations. We also give some classification results for Floer simple knots in manifolds with positive _b1$b_1$.     

Heegaard Floer correction terms and rational genus bounds

Given an element in the first homology of a rational homology 3-sphere Y, one can consider the minimal rational genus of all knots in this homology class. This defines a function Θ   on _H1(Y;Z)$H_1(Y;\mathbb{Z})$, which was introduced by Turaev as an analogue of Thurston norm. We will give a lower bound for this function using the correction terms in Heegaard Floer homology. As a corollary, we show that Floer simple knots in L-spaces are genus minimizers in their homology classes, hence answer questions of Turaev and Rasmussen about genus minimizers in lens spaces.     

Ribbon-moves for 2-knots with 1-handles attached and Khovanov-Jacobsson numbers

We prove that a crossing change along a double point circle on a -knot is realized by ribbon-moves for a knotted torus obtained from the -knot by attaching a -handle. It follows that any -knots for which the crossing change is an unknotting operation, such as ribbon -knots and twist-spun knots, have trivial Khovanov-Jacobsson number.

     

The Neumann-Siebenmann invariant and Seifert surgery

We discuss some relations between the invariant originated in Fukumoto-Furuta and the Neumann-Siebenmann invariant for the Seifert rational homology 3-spheres. We give certain constraints on Seifert 3-manifolds to be obtained by surgery on knots in homology 3-spheres in terms of these invariants.Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 57M27, 57N13, 57N10Dedicated to Professor Yukio Matsumoto for his 60^th birthday     

Hyperbolic knots spanning accidental Seifert surfaces of arbitrarily high genus

A method for constructing hyperbolic knots each of which bounds accidental incompressible Seifert surfaces of arbitrarily high genus is given. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):57N10, 57M25.The author was supported in part by Research Fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists.     

Knot Floer homology detects fibred knots

Ozsváth and Szabó conjectured that knot Floer homology detects fibred knots in S ³. We will prove this conjecture for null-homologous knots in arbitrary closed 3-manifolds. Namely, if K is a knot in a closed 3-manifold Y, Y-K is irreducible, and is monic, then K is fibred. The proof relies on previous works due to Gabai, Ozsváth–Szabó, Ghiggini and the author. A corollary is that if a knot in S ³ admits a lens space surgery, then the knot is fibred. Dedicated to Professor Boju Jiang on the occasion of his 70th birthday Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 57R58, 57M27, 57R30     

Über eine Klasse von Brezelknoten

The paper gives a classification of pretzel knots (p,qq,rr) with one even cross number. The Alexander polynomial is computed in general and it is proved that its degree is always twice the genus of the knot. The classification does not include amphicheirality.

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Diese Resultate sind in meiner Dissertation Die Längskreisinvariante und Brezelknoten, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, enthalten.     

Non-trivial involutions on Floer Homology

 We construct the first examples of irreducible 3-manifolds with the homology of S ¹×S ² admitting an involution acting non-trivially on their Floer Homology. The examples are obtained by 0-surgery along certain composite amphicheiral knots whose SU(2)-representation variety satisfies a non-degeneracy condition. Received: 13 September 1999 / Revised version: 23 March 2000 / Published online: 28 March 2003 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 57R58, 57M25 When this article was submitted and revised, the author was supported by an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship and Harvard University     

The algebraic characterization of the exteriors of certain 2-knots

Summary We study 2-knots with virtually solvable group by applying recent work of Freedman to the 4-manifolds obtained by surgery on such knots. In particular we show that Gluck reconstruction is the only ambiguity in recovering the Cappell-Shaneson knots (as TOP locally flat knots) from their groups alone.     

On the Heegaard Floer homology of branched double-covers

Let be a link. We study the Heegaard Floer homology of the branched double-cover Σ(L) of S³, branched along L. When L is an alternating link, of its branched double-cover has a particularly simple form, determined entirely by the determinant of the link. For the general case, we derive a spectral sequence whose E² term is a suitable variant of Khovanov's homology for the link L, converging to the Heegaard Floer homology of Σ(L).     

Strongly-cyclic branched coverings of knots via (g, 1)-decompositions

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. Work performed under the auspices of G.N.S.A.G.A. of I.N.d.A.M. of Italy and supported by M.U.R.S.T., by the University of Bologna, funds for selected research topics. The third named author was also supported by the INTAS project “CalcoMet-GT” 03-51-3663, the grant of RFRB, and the grant of SB RAN.     

On the Heegaard Floer homology of a surface times a circle

We make a detailed study of the Heegaard Floer homology of the product of a closed surface Σg of genus g with S¹. We determine HF⁺(Σg×S¹,s;C) completely in the case c₁(s)=0, which for g?3 was previously unknown. We show that in this case HF^∞ is closely related to the cohomology of the total space of a certain circle bundle over the Jacobian torus of Σg, and furthermore that HF⁺(Σg×S¹,s;Z) contains nontrivial 2-torsion whenever g?3 and c₁(s)=0. This is the first example known to the authors of torsion in Z-coefficient Heegaard Floer homology. Our methods also give new information on the action of H₁(Σg×S¹) on HF⁺(Σg×S¹,s) when c₁(s) is nonzero.     

Knots with unknotting number one and Heegaard Floer homology

We use Heegaard Floer homology to give obstructions to unknotting a knot with a single crossing change. These restrictions are particularly useful in the case where the knot in question is alternating. As an example, we use them to classify all knots with crossing number less than or equal to nine and unknotting number equal to one. We also classify alternating knots with 10 crossings and unknotting number equal to one.     

Khovanov homology, open books, and tight contact structures

We define the reduced Khovanov homology of an open book (S,?), and identify a distinguished “contact element” in this group which may be used to establish the tightness or non-fillability of contact structures compatible with (S,?). Our construction generalizes the relationship between the reduced Khovanov homology of a link and the Heegaard Floer homology of its branched double cover. As an application, we give combinatorial proofs of tightness for several contact structures which are not Stein-fillable. Lastly, we investigate a comultiplication structure on the reduced Khovanov homology of an open book which parallels the comultiplication on Heegaard Floer homology defined in Baldwin (2008) [4].     

Link homology theories from symplectic geometry

For each positive integer n, Khovanov and Rozansky constructed an invariant of links in the form of a doubly-graded cohomology theory whose Euler characteristic is the sl(n) link polynomial. We use Lagrangian Floer cohomology on some suitable affine varieties to build a similar series of link invariants, and we conjecture them to be equal to those of Khovanov and Rozansky after a collapse of the bigrading. Our work is a generalization of that of Seidel and Smith, who treated the case n=2.     

Floer Homology and the Heat Flow

We study the heat flow in the loop space of a closed Riemannian manifold M as an adiabatic limit of the Floer equations in the cotangent bundle. Our main application is a proof that the Floer homology of the cotangent bundle, for the Hamiltonian function kinetic plus potential energy, is naturally isomorphic to the homology of the loop space. J.W. received partial financial support from TH-Projekt 00321. Received: December 2004 Revision: September 2005 Accepted: September 2005