The stable 4-genus of knots

DOI10.2140/AGT.2010.10.2191MaRDI QIDQ600812zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Charles Livingston

Publication date 2 November 2010

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.3054

zbMATH Keywords

4-genus of a knotalgebraically slice knotCasson-Gordon invariantKhovanov-Rasmussen invariantknot concordance groupknot signatureOzsváth-Szabó invarianttorus knot

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Cobordism and concordance in topological manifolds (57N70) Cobordism and concordance in PL-topology (57Q60) Floer homology (57R58)

Abstract: The stable 4-genus of a knot K in 3-space is the limiting value of g_4(nK)/n, where g_4 denotes the 4-genus and n goes to infinity. This induces a seminorm on CQ, the concordance group tensored with the rational numbers. Basic properties of the stable genus are developed, as are examples focused on understanding the unit ball under this seminorm for specified subspaces of CQ. Subspaces spanned by torus knots are used to illustrate the distinction between the smooth and topological categories. A final example is given in which Casson-Gordon invariants are used to demonstrate that the stable genus can be a noninteger, something that cannot be detected by classical invariants or those arising from Heegaard-Floer or Khovanov homology. It is unknown if the stable genus determines a norm on CQ and no noninteger value for the stable genus is known.

Review text

The 4-genus \(g_4(K)\) of a knot \(K\) in the 3-sphere is the minimal genus of a compact orientable surface in the 4-disk bounded by \(K\). The author introduces the stable 4-genus \(g_{\text{st}}(K)\) of \(K\) as the limit of \(g_4(nK)/n\), for \(n\) tending to \(\infty\), where \(nK\) is the \(n\)-fold knot sum of \(K\). As the 4-genus, the stable 4-genus is bounded below by \(\frac{1}{2}\) of the absolute value of the knot signature, is subadditive, and leads to a seminorm on the rational knot concordance group \(\mathcal C _{\mathbb Q}\). The unit ball with respect to this seminorm is investigated on 2-dimensional subspaces of \(\mathcal C _{\mathbb Q}\), spanned by torus knots, using the Ozsváth-Szabó invariant, the Khovanov-Rasmussen invariant, and the Tristram-Levine signature. The stable 4-genus is not necessarily an integer: By a construction using Casson-Gordon invariants, it is proved that the value of the stable 4-genus can be arbitrarily close to \(\frac{1}{2}\).

Recommendations

• The stable concordance genus
• A lower bound on the stable 4-genus of knots
• The four-genus of connected sums of torus knots
• The stable \(4\)-genus of alternating knots
• Four-ball genus bounds and a refinement of the Ozsváth-Szabó tau invariant

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Cited in

(20)

• Four-genera of quasipositive knots
• Genera of some closed 4-braids
• On classical upper bounds for slice genera
• The geometry of the knot concordance space
• The stable \(4\)-genus of alternating knots
• The nonorientable 4-genus for knots with 8 or 9 crossings
• A lower bound on the stable 4-genus of knots
• Analytic knots, satellites and the 4-ball genus
• Shake genus and slice genus
• 4-moves and the Dabkowski-Sahi invariant for knots
• On the topological 4-genus of torus knots
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1765824 (Why is no real title available?)
• The four-genus of connected sums of torus knots
• Stably slice disks of links
• The Rasmussen Invariant, Four-genus, and Three-genus of an Almost Positive Knot Are Equal
• On the values taken by slice torus invariants
• On the nonorientable 4-genus of double twist knots
• Signed clasp numbers of knots and four-genus bounds
• Quantitative bordism over acyclic groups and Cheeger-Gromov -invariants
• Concordance group and stable commutator length in braid groups

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