Generalized square knots and homotopy 4-spheres

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Meier, Jeffrey, Zupan, Alexander
Format: Preprint
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929504904019968
author Meier, Jeffrey
Zupan, Alexander
author_facet Meier, Jeffrey
Zupan, Alexander
contents The purpose of this paper is to study geometrically simply-connected homotopy 4-spheres by analyzing $n$-component links with a Dehn surgery realizing $\#^n(S^1\times S^2)$. We call such links $n$R-links. Our main result is that a homotopy 4-sphere that can be built without 1-handles and with only two 2-handles is diffeomorphic to the standard 4-sphere in the special case that one of the 2-handles is attached along a knot of the form $Q_{p,q} = T_{p,q}\#T_{-p,q}$, which we call a generalized square knot. This theorem subsumes prior results of Akbulut and Gompf. Along the way, we use thin position techniques from Heegaard theory to give a characterization of 2R-links in which one component is a fibered knot, showing that the second component can be converted via trivial handle additions and handleslides to a derivative link contained in the fiber surface. We invoke a theorem of Casson and Gordon and the Equivariant Loop Theorem to classify handlebody-extensions for the closed monodromy of a generalized square knot $Q_{p,q}$. As a consequence, we produce large families, for all even $n$, of $n$R-links that are potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture. We also obtain related classification statements for fibered, homotopy-ribbon disks bounded by generalized square knots.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1904_08527
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Generalized square knots and homotopy 4-spheres
Meier, Jeffrey
Zupan, Alexander
Geometric Topology
The purpose of this paper is to study geometrically simply-connected homotopy 4-spheres by analyzing $n$-component links with a Dehn surgery realizing $\#^n(S^1\times S^2)$. We call such links $n$R-links. Our main result is that a homotopy 4-sphere that can be built without 1-handles and with only two 2-handles is diffeomorphic to the standard 4-sphere in the special case that one of the 2-handles is attached along a knot of the form $Q_{p,q} = T_{p,q}\#T_{-p,q}$, which we call a generalized square knot. This theorem subsumes prior results of Akbulut and Gompf. Along the way, we use thin position techniques from Heegaard theory to give a characterization of 2R-links in which one component is a fibered knot, showing that the second component can be converted via trivial handle additions and handleslides to a derivative link contained in the fiber surface. We invoke a theorem of Casson and Gordon and the Equivariant Loop Theorem to classify handlebody-extensions for the closed monodromy of a generalized square knot $Q_{p,q}$. As a consequence, we produce large families, for all even $n$, of $n$R-links that are potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture. We also obtain related classification statements for fibered, homotopy-ribbon disks bounded by generalized square knots.
title Generalized square knots and homotopy 4-spheres
topic Geometric Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.08527