Vassiliev invariants and the Poincaré conjecture (Q5915522)

Using a combinatorial approach due to J. Birman and X.-S. Lin, Vassiliev invariants can be defined for knots in an arbitrary \(3\)-manifold. In this paper, the author shows that if \(h: V\to V\) is an orientation-preserving imbedding of a simply-connected \(3\)-manifold to itself, and \(K\) is a knot, then these Vassiliev invariants do not distinguish between \(K\) and its image \(hK\). This follows from the facts that \(K\) is homotopic to a local knot \(K'\), that is, a knot which is contained in some \({\mathbb R}^3\) imbedded in \(V\), and that \(K'\) is isotopic to \(hK'\). It follows that in every contractible open \(3\)-manifold that imbeds in \({\mathbb R}^3\), there exist distinct knots with the same Vassiliev invariants. This probably holds for all contractible open \(3\)-manifolds. Another consequence is that if \(V\) is a homotopy \(3\)-sphere not homeomorphic to \(S^3\), then the connected sum \(V\# V\) contains distinct knots with the same Vassiliev invariants. More generally, in a closed \(3\)-manifold \(M\), if Vassiliev invariants distinguish all knots in \(M\# M\), then \(M\) contains no fake \(3\)-cell.