On the Stein framing number of a knot

DOI10.4310/JSG.2020.V18.N1.A5MaRDI QIDQ2306967zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Thomas E. Mark, Lisa Piccirillo, Faramarz Vafaee

Publication date 27 March 2020

Published in The Journal of Symplectic Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.08346

zbMATH Keywords

Stein domainStein framing number

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General topology of 4-manifolds (57K40) Symplectic and contact topology in high or arbitrary dimension (57R17) Surgery and handlebodies (57R65)

Abstract: For an integer $n$, write $X_n(K)$ for the 4-manifold obtained by attaching a 2-handle to the 4-ball along the knot $Ksubset{S}^3$ with framing $n$. It is known that if $n<overlineexttb(K)$, then $X_n(K)$ admits the structure of a Stein domain, and moreover the adjunction inequality implies there is an upper bound on the value of $n$ such that $X_n(K)$ is Stein. We provide examples of knots $K$ and integers $ngeqoverlineexttb(K)$ for which $X_n(K)$ is Stein, answering an open question in the field. In fact, our family of examples shows that the largest framing such that the manifold $X_n(K)$ admits a Stein structure can be arbitrarily larger than $overlineexttb(K)$. We also provide an upper bound on the Stein framings for $K$ that is typically stronger than that coming from the adjunction inequality.

Review text

According to a celebrated result of \textit{Y. Eliashberg} [Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 151, 45--72 (1990; Zbl 0731.53036)], a smooth (real) \(4\)-manifold admits a Stein structure if and only if it admits a handle decomposition with only \(0\), \(1\) and \(2\)-handles, where each \(2\)-handle is attached along a Legendrian knot \(\mathcal{L}\) with framing one less than the Thurston-Bennequin framing \(\operatorname{tb}(\mathcal{L})\). Given a \(4\)-manifold with a random handle decomposition, it is not always clear whether the given handle decomposition can be modified so that it satisfies Eliashberg's criterion. In the paper under review, the authors consider the case of a single \(2\)-handle attached to a \(4\)-ball along a knot \(K\subset S^3\). It is elementary to see that the resulting \(4\)-manifold, \(X_n(K)\), admits a Stein structure if \(n<\overline{\operatorname{tb}}(K)\), where \(\overline{\operatorname{tb}}(K)\) denotes the maximum Thurston-Bennequin number of all Legendrian representatives of \(K\). The authors show that the converse of the above result is false. In particular, they show that the largest \(n\) such that \(X_n(K)\) is Stein, a number they call the \textit{Stein framing number} and denote \(\operatorname{Sf}(K)\), can be arbitrarily larger than \(\overline{\operatorname{tb}}(K)\). This answers negatively a question stated explicitly by \textit{K. Yasui} [J. Symplectic Geom. 15, No. 1, 91--105 (2017; Zbl 1369.57030)]. In order to prove their result, the authors use the work of \textit{T. Abe} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2015, No. 22, 11667--11693 (2015; Zbl 1331.57004)] to construct a family of pairs of distinct knots \(P_m\) and \(Q_m\) such that \(X_{-m}(P_m)\) is diffeomorphic to \(X_{-m}(Q_m)\) for \(m\in\mathbb{N}\). A large part of the paper is devoted to using techniques from Khovanov homology to obtain estimates for \(\overline{\operatorname{tb}}\) that are used in the proof. Using knot Floer homology, the authors also give new upper bounds on \(\operatorname{Sf}\).

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Cited in

(2)

• FRAMINGS ON ALGEBRAIC KNOTS
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