Floer homology and splicing knot complements (Q907763)

The purpose of the paper under review is to give a formula for the Heegaard Floer homology (hat version) of the homology \(3\)-sphere \(Y(K_1,K_2)\) obtained by splicing two exteriors of knots \(K_i\) in \(Y_i\) in terms of the knot Floer homology of these knots. More precisely, let \(K_1\) and \(K_2\) be knots in homology \(3\)-spheres \(Y_1\) and \(Y_2\), respectively. Glue the exteriors of these knots so that the meridian of each side corresponds to the longitude of the other side. Then the resulting manifold is a homology \(3\)-sphere. The main result says that the Heegaard Floer homology of \(Y(K_1,K_2)\) is described as a homology of a certain chain complex. The argument uses a combinatorial description of Heegaard Floer homology after constructing a Heegaard diagram of \(Y(K_1,K_2)\) from two Heegaard diagrams of two knot exteriors of \(K_1\) and \(K_2\). As an application, homology spheres obtained by splicing knot exteriors with the trefoil exterior are examined. By evaluating the rank of Heegaard Floer homology, if a knot \(K\) is non-trivial, then \(Y(R,K)\) is shown to be not an \(L\)-space, where \(R\) denotes the right-handed trefoil. As a similar result, \textit{M. Hedden} and \textit{A. S. Levine} [``Splicing knot complements and bordered Floer homology'', \url{arXiv:1210.7055}] showed that if both of \(Y_1\) and \(Y_2\) are \(L\)-spaces and \(K_1\) and \(K_2\) are non-trivial, then \(Y(K_1,K_2)\) is not an \(L\)-space, by calculating the Heegaard Floer homology using bordered Floer homology.