Knots with small rational genus

DOI10.4171/CMH/279zbMATH Open1275.57019arXiv0912.1843MaRDI QIDQ1939564FDOQ1939564

Cameron McA. Gordon, Danny Calegari

Publication date: 4 March 2013

Published in: Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: If K is a rationally null-homologous knot in a 3-manifold M, the rational genus of K is the infimum of -chi(S)/2p over all embedded orientable surfaces S in the complement of K whose boundary wraps p times around K for some p (hereafter: S is a p-Seifert surface for K). Knots with very small rational genus can be constructed by "generic" Dehn filling, and are therefore extremely plentiful. In this paper we show that knots with rational genus less than 1/402 are all geometric -- i.e. they may be isotoped into a special form with respect to the geometric decomposition of M -- and give a complete classification. Our arguments are a mixture of hyperbolic geometry, combinatorics, and a careful study of the interaction of small p-Seifert surfaces with essential subsurfaces in M of non-negative Euler characteristic.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0912.1843

zbMATH Keywords

Thurston normstable commutator lengthrational genusBerge conjectureKnots

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General geometric structures on low-dimensional manifolds (57M50)

Cited In (8)

• Nonorientable surfaces in homology cobordisms (with an appendix by Ira M. Gessel)
• Knot Floer homology and relative adjunction inequalities
• Small knots in some closed Haken 3-manifolds.
• A Survey of the Thurston Norm
• Heegaard Floer correction terms and rational genus bounds
• On concordances in 3-manifolds
• \(\tau\)-invariants for knots in rational homology spheres
• Correction terms, \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-Thurston norm, and triangulations

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