Simple Whitney towers, half-gropes and the Arf invariant of a knot

DOI10.2140/PJM.2005.222.169zbMATH Open1110.57006arXivmath/0310304OpenAlexW1991570766MaRDI QIDQ2496576FDOQ2496576

Authors: Rob Schneiderman 

Publication date: 11 July 2006

Published in: Pacific Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: A geometric characterization of the Arf invariant of a knot in the 3-sphere is given in terms of two kinds of 4-dimensional bordisms, half-gropes and Whitney towers. These types of bordisms have associated complexities class and order which filter the condition of bordism by an embedded annulus, i.e. knot concordance, and it is shown constructively that the Arf invariant is exactly the obstruction to cobording pairs of knots by half-gropes and Whitney towers of arbitrarily high class and order. This illustrates geometrically how, in the setting of knot concordance, the Vassiliev (isotopy) invariants "collapse" to the Arf invariant.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0310304

Recommendations

• Whitney towers and abelian invariants of knots
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3944849
• On the Arf invariant of links
• The Arf and Sato Link Concordance Invariants
• Grope cobordism and Feynman diagrams

zbMATH Keywords

Arf invariantbordismgropesWhitney towers

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Cited In (8)

• Introduction to Whitney towers
• Whitney towers and abelian invariants of knots
• Algebraic linking numbers of knots in 3-manifolds
• Whitney tower concordance of classical links
• Whitney towers and gropes in 4–manifolds
• Concordance of links with identical Alexander invariants
• Stable concordance of knots in 3-manifolds
• Rational Whitney tower filtration of links

This page was built for publication: Simple Whitney towers, half-gropes and the Arf invariant of a knot

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2496576)