A Combinatorial Description of the Knot Concordance Invariant Epsilon

Abstract

In this paper, we give a combinatorial description of the concordance invariant $\varepsilon$ defined by Hom in \cite{hom2011knot}, prove some properties of this invariant using grid homology techniques. We also compute $\varepsilon$ of $(p,q)$ torus knots and prove that $\varepsilon(\mathbb{G}_+)=1$ if $\mathbb{G}_+$ is a grid diagram for a positive braid. Furthermore, we show how $\varepsilon$ behaves under $(p,q)$-cabling of negative torus knots.