arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Cheryl Balm.
We prove that the property of admitting no cosmetic crossing changes is preserved under the operation of forming certain satellites of winding number zero. We also define strongly cosmetic crossing changes and we discuss their behavior under the operation of inserting full twists in the strings of closed braids.
We show that if K is a satellite knot which admits a generalized cosmetic crossing change of order q with |q| \geq 6, then K admits a pattern knot with a generalized cosmetic crossing change of the same order. As a consequence of this, we find that any prime satellite knot which admits a pattern knot that is fibered cannot admit a generalized cosmetic crossing changes of order q with |q| \geq 6. We also show that if there is any knot admitting a generalized cosmetic crossing change of order q with |q| \geq 6, then there must be such a knot which is hyperbolic.
We study cosmetic crossings in knots of genus one and obtain obstructions to such crossings in terms of knot invariants determined by Seifert matrices. In particular, we prove that for genus one knots the Alexander polynomial and the homology of the double cover branching over the knot provide obstructions to cosmetic crossings. As an application we prove the nugatory crossing conjecture for twisted Whitehead doubles of non-cable knots. We also verify the conjecture for several families of pretzel knots and all genus one knots with up to 12 crossings.
We show that for genus one knots the Alexander polynomial and the homology of the double cover branching over the knot provide obstructions to cosmetic crossings. As an application we prove the nugatory crossing conjecture for the negatively twisted, positive Whitehead doubles of all knots. We also verify the conjecture for several families of pretzel knots and all genus one knots with up to 10 crossings.