Satellites of infinite rank in the smooth concordance group (Q2041858)

This article offers several conjectures on how satellite operations on knots interact with the concordance group. Two knots \(K_1\), \(K_2\) are said to be (smoothly) concordant if they cobound an (smoothly) embedded cyclinder in \(S^3\times[0,1]\). The equivalence classes of knots under concordance form a group \(\mathcal{C}\) under the connected sum operation. For any knot \(P\) in the solid torus \(S^1\times D^2\) there is a satellite operation which induces a map \(P:\mathcal{C}\to\mathcal{C}\), which usually is not a group homomorphism. The central conjecture of the article is that if \(P:\mathcal{C}\to\mathcal{C}\) is not constant, then the image of \(P:\mathcal{C}\to\mathcal{C}\) generates a subgroup of infinite rank in \(C\). The conjecture is proved for the case where \(P\) has a non-zero winding number. The main result of the article is a condition that is sufficient for the conjecture to hold for a given knot \(P\) with winding number zero. This criterion is based on rational linking numbers of lifts of \(\partial D^2\) to a double branched cover. The result is established using techniques from \(SO(3)\) gauge theory, such as instanton cobordism obstructions derived from instanton moduli spaces and Chern-Simons invariants. Some examples are included, which highlight how the criterion can be tested in practice.