arXiv subjects

Alexandra Kjuchukova

Publications and source records attributed to Alexandra Kjuchukova.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Dihedral branched covers of four-manifolds

Given a closed oriented PL four-manifold $X$ and a closed surface $B$ embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities, we give a formula for the signature of an irregular dihedral cover of $X$ branched along $B$. For $X$ simply-connected, we deduce a necessary condition on the intersection form of a simply-connected irregular dihedral branched cover of $(X, B)$. When the singularities on $B$ are two-bridge slice, we prove that the necessary condition on the intersection form of the cover is sharp. For $X$ a simply-connected PL four-manifold with non-zero second Betti number, we construct infinite families of simply-connected PL manifolds which are irregular dihedral branched coverings of $X$. Given two four-manifolds $X$ and $Y$ whose intersection forms are odd, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for $Y$ to be homeomorphic to an irregular dihedral $p$-fold cover of $X$, branched over a surface with a two-bridge slice singularity.

math.GT↗

arXiv2017

Symmetric quotients of knot groups and a filtration of the Gordian graph

We define a metric filtration of the Gordian graph by an infinite family of 1-dense subgraphs. The n-th subgraph of this family is generated by all knots whose fundamental groups surject to a symmetric group with parameter at least n, where all meridians are mapped to transpositions. Incidentally, we verify the Meridional Rank Conjecture for a family of knots with unknotting number one yet arbitrarily high bridge number.

math.GT↗

arXiv2017

Singular branched covers of four-manifolds

Consider a dihedral cover $f: Y\to X$ with $X$ and $Y$ four-manifolds and $f$ branched along an oriented surface embedded in $X$ with isolated cone singularities. We prove that only a slice knot can arise as the unique singularity on an irregular dihedral cover $f: Y\to S^4$ if $Y$ is homotopy equivalent to $\mathbb{CP}^2$ and construct an explicit infinite family of such covers with $Y$ diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{CP}^2$. An obstruction to a knot being homotopically ribbon arises in this setting, and we describe a class of potential counter-examples to the Slice-Ribbon Conjecture. Our tools include lifting a trisection of a singularly embedded surface in a four-manifold $X$ to obtain a trisection of the corresponding irregular dihedral branched cover of $X$, when such a cover exists. We also develop a combinatorial procedure to compute, using a formula by the second author, the contribution to the signature of the covering manifold which results from the presence of a singularity on the branching set.

math.GT↗

arXiv2017

Wirtinger systems of generators of knot groups

We define the {\it Wirtinger number} of a link, an invariant closely related to the meridional rank. The Wirtinger number is the minimum number of generators of the fundamental group of the link complement over all meridional presentations in which every relation is an iterated Wirtinger relation arising in a diagram. We prove that the Wirtinger number of a link equals its bridge number. This equality can be viewed as establishing a weak version of Cappell and Shaneson's Meridional Rank Conjecture, and suggests a new approach to this conjecture. Our result also leads to a combinatorial technique for obtaining strong upper bounds on bridge numbers. This technique has so far allowed us to add the bridge numbers of approximately 50,000 prime knots of up to 14 crossings to the knot table. As another application, we use the Wirtinger number to show there exists a universal constant $C$ with the property that the hyperbolic volume of a prime alternating link $L$ is bounded below by $C$ times the bridge number of $L$.

math.GT↗