Nonorientable slice genus can be arbitrarily large (Q477932)

Every knot \(K\) in 3-space can be realized as a cross-section of some surface smoothly embedded in 4-space. However, if the surface is required to satisfy certain conditions, including orientability, then there appear obstructions to the realization. In this paper, the author investigates the case when the surface is nonorientable. The main result is that if a knot \(K \subset S^3\) is a cross-section of a smoothly embedded nonorientable surface \(F \subset B^4\), then \(b_1(F) \geq \sigma(K)/2-d(S^3_{-1}(K))\), where \(b_1\) is the first Betti number, \(\sigma\) is the Murasugi signature and \(d\) is the Heegaard-Floer \(d\)-invariant of the integer homology sphere \(S^3_{-1}(K)\) given by \(-1\) surgery on \(K\). This result gives a lower bound of the nonorientable slice genus of a knot \(K\). In particular, if the \((2k, 2k-1)\) torus knot is a cross-section of a smoothly embedded surface \(F \subset \mathbb{R}^4\), then \(b_1(F) \geq 2k-2\). In the proof, the author replaces the non-orientable surface \(F \subset B^4\) with an orientable surface in another manifold by using a result due to Yasuhara, and attaches a \(-1\)-framed 2-handle along \(K\) and removes a neighborhood of a certain surface to obtain a 4-manifold \(W\). Then, by considering the Heegaard-Floer \(d\)-invariants of the two boundaries of \(W\) and using an inequality due to Gordon and Litherland concerning the first Betti number, the signature and the Euler number, the required inequality follows.