On Knots with trivial Alexander polynomial
Stavros Garoufalidis, Peter Teichner
Abstract
We use the 2-loop term of the Kontsevich integral to show that there are (many) knots with trivial Alexander polynomial which don't have a Seifert surface whose genus equals the rank of the Seifert form. This is one of the first applications of the Kontsevich integral to intrinsically 3-dimensional questions in topology. Our examples contradict a lemma of Mike Freedman, and we explain what went wrong in his argument and why the mistake is irrelevant for topological knot concordance. References updated.
Create a lesson
Related papers
Combinatorial Goussarov-Polyak-Viro Formulas for the Linking Number and Low Degree Coefficients of the Conway Polynomial
Nancy Scherich, Nathaniel Song
The flip symmetry on Khovanov-Rozansky homology
Hongjian Yang
Families of knots that cannot be made Legendrian parametrically
Javier Martínez-Aguinaga
Branched real projective structures on surfaces and geometrisation of representations
Gianluca Faraco, Nicholas Rungi
Generating the twist subgroup of the level 2 mapping class group of a non-orientable closed surface
Ryoma Kobayashi
H-cobordisms, infinite cyclic covers, and real Seiberg--Witten theory
Sungkyung Kang, JungHwan Park, Masaki Taniguchi