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Irving Dai

Publications and source records attributed to Irving Dai.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Exotic disks and singular instanton Floer homology

We show that singular instanton Floer homology with the Chern--Simons filtration can be used to produce exotic pairs of slice disks. We moreover construct a strongly invertible $\mathbb{Z}$-slice knot for which any symmetric pair of $\mathbb{Z}$-disks are exotic, and remain exotic after stabilizing by $n\smash{\mathbb{CP}}^2$ or $n\smash{\overline{\mathbb{CP}}}^2$ (or by standard $n\smash{\mathbb{RP}}^2$ or $-n\smash{\mathbb{RP}}^2$) for any $n$. Our methods apply more generally to stabilization by any simply connected definite manifold, or by any number of exotic embedded projective planes of the same sign. We also provide an example of a strongly invertible knot which is $\mathbb{Z}$-slice and equivariantly slice, but not equivariantly $\mathbb{Z}$-slice. Along the way, we partially compute various symmetry actions on the singular instanton Floer complexes of two-bridge knots via an explicit analysis of their traceless $\mathit{SU}(2)$-character varieties.

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arXiv2026

Reidemeister and movie moves for involutive links

An involutive link is a link which is invariant under the standard rotation by 180 degrees in $S^3$. We establish an equivariant analogue of the work of Carter and Saito aimed at studying equivariant cobordisms between involutive links. This gives a set of $39$ equivariant movie moves that suffice to go between any two movie presentations of a pair of equivariantly isotopic cobordisms. Along the way, we give a singularity-theoretic proof of the equivariant Reidemeister theorem and study loops of equivariant Reidemeister moves. Our approach proceeds by analyzing codimension $2$ singularities of equivariant maps from $S^1$ to $\mathbb{R}^2$, as well as utilizing embedded equivariant Morse theory.

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arXiv2025

Khovanov homology and equivariant surfaces

We introduce a refinement of Bar-Natan homology for involutive links, extending the work of Lobb-Watson and Sano. We construct a new suite of numerical invariants and derive bounds for the genus of equivariant cobordisms between strongly invertible knots. Our invariants show that the difference between the equivariant slice genus and isotopy-equivariant slice genus can be arbitrarily large, whereas previously these were not known to differ.

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arXiv2024

$\mathbb{Z}$-disks in $\mathbb{C} P^2$

We study locally flat disks in $(\mathbb{C} P^2)^\circ:=(\mathbb{C} P^2)\setminus \mathring{B^4}$ with boundary a fixed knot $K$ and whose complement has fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}$. We show that up to topological isotopy rel. boundary, such disks necessarily arise by performing a positive crossing change on $K$ to an Alexander polynomial one knot and capping off with a $\mathbb{Z}$-disk in $D^4.$ Such a crossing change determines a loop in $S^3 \setminus K$ and we prove that the homology class of its lift to the infinite cyclic cover leads to a complete invariant of the disk. We prove that this determines a bijection between the set of rel. boundary topological isotopy classes of $\mathbb{Z}$-disks with boundary $K$ and a quotient of the set of unitary units of the ring $\mathbb{Z}[t^{\pm 1}]/(\Delta_K)$. Number-theoretic considerations allow us to deduce that a knot $K \subset S^3$ with quadratic Alexander polynomial bounds $0,1,2,4$, or infinitely many $\mathbb{Z}$-disks in $(\mathbb{C} P^2)^\circ$. This leads to the first examples of knots bounding infinitely many topologically distinct disks whose exteriors have the same fundamental group and equivariant intersection form. Finally we give several examples where these disks are realized smoothly.

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arXiv2023

Gompf's cork and Heegaard Floer homology

Gompf showed that for $K$ in a certain family of double-twist knots, the swallow-follow operation makes $1/n$-surgery on $K \# -K$ into a cork boundary. We derive a general Floer-theoretic condition on $K$ under which this is the case. Our formalism allows us to produce many further examples of corks, partially answering a question of Gompf. Unlike Gompf's method, our proof does not rely on any closed 4-manifold invariants or effective embeddings, and also generalizes to other diffeomorphisms.

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arXiv2023

Involutions and the Chern-Simons filtration in instanton Floer homology

Building on the work of Nozaki, Sato and Taniguchi, we develop an instanton-theoretic invariant aimed at studying strong corks and equivariant bounding. Our construction utilizes the Chern-Simons filtration and is qualitatively different from previous Floer-theoretic methods used to address these questions. As an application, we give an example of a cork whose boundary involution does not extend over any 4-manifold $X$ with $H_1(X, \mathbb{Z}_2) = 0$ and $b_2(X) \leq 1 $, and a strong cork which survives stabilization by either of $n\smash{\mathbb{CP}^2}$ or $n\smash{\overline{\mathbb{CP}}}^2$. We also prove that every nontrivial linear combination of $1/n$-surgeries on the strongly invertible knot $\smash{\overline{9}_{46}}$ constitutes a strong cork. Although Yang-Mills theory has been used to study corks via the Donaldson invariant, this is the first instance where the critical values of the Chern-Simons functional have been utilized to produce such examples. Finally, we discuss the geography question for nonorientable surfaces in the case of extremal normal Euler number.

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arXiv2023

Lattice homology and Seiberg-Witten Floer spectra

Using lattice homology, we give an explicit combinatorial description of the Seiberg-Witten-Floer spectrum $\mathit{SWF}(Y)$ for $Y$ an almost-rational plumbed homology sphere. This class of manifolds includes all Seifert fibered rational homology spheres with base orbifold $S^2$. Using our computations, we provide a calculation of Manolescu's $\kappa$-invariant for certain connected sums of these spaces.

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arXiv2022

Rank-expanding satellites, Whitehead doubles, and Heegaard Floer homology

We show that a large class of satellite operators are rank-expanding; that is, they map some rank-one subgroup of the concordance group onto an infinite linearly independent set. Our work constitutes the first systematic study of this property in the literature and partially affirms a conjecture of the second author and Pinzón-Caicedo. More generally, we establish a Floer-theoretic condition for a family of companion knots to have infinite-rank image under satellites from this class. The methods we use are amenable to patterns which act trivially in topological concordance and are capable of handling a surprisingly wide variety of companions. For instance, we give an infinite linearly independent family of Whitehead doubles whose companion knots all have negative $τ$-invariant. Our also results recover and extend several theorems in this area established using instanton Floer homology.

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arXiv2022

Instanton Floer homology of almost-rational plumbings

We show that if $Y$ is the boundary of an almost-rational plumbing, then the framed instanton Floer homology $\smash{I^\#(Y)}$ is isomorphic to the Heegaard Floer homology $\smash{\widehat{\mathit{HF}}(Y; \mathbb{C})}$. This class of 3-manifolds includes all Seifert fibered rational homology spheres with base orbifold $S^2$ (we establish the isomorphism for the remaining Seifert fibered rational homology spheres$\unicode{x2014}$with base $\mathbb{RP}^2$$\unicode{x2014}$directly). Our proof utilizes lattice homology, and relies on a decomposition theorem for instanton Floer cobordism maps recently established by Baldwin and Sivek.

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arXiv2022

More concordance homomorphisms from knot Floer homology

We define an infinite family of linearly independent, integer-valued smooth concordance homomorphisms. Our homomorphisms are explicitly computable and rely on local equivalence classes of knot Floer complexes over the ring $\mathbb{F}[U, V]/(UV=0)$. We compare our invariants to other concordance homomorphisms coming from knot Floer homology, and discuss applications to topologically slice knots, concordance genus, and concordance unknotting number.

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arXiv2022

Equivariant knots and knot Floer homology

We define several equivariant concordance invariants using knot Floer homology. We show that our invariants provide a lower bound for the equivariant slice genus and use this to give a family of strongly invertible slice knots whose equivariant slice genus grows arbitrarily large, answering a question of Boyle and Issa. We also apply our formalism to several seemingly non-equivariant questions. In particular, we show that knot Floer homology can be used to detect exotic pairs of slice disks, recovering an example due to Hayden, and extend a result due to Miller and Powell regarding stabilization distance. Our formalism suggests a possible route towards establishing the non-commutativity of the equivariant concordance group.

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arXiv2021

Homology concordance and knot Floer homology

We study the homology concordance group of knots in integer homology three-spheres which bound integer homology four-balls. Using knot Floer homology, we construct an infinite number of $\mathbb{Z}$-valued, linearly independent homology concordance homomorphisms which vanish for knots coming from $S^3$. This shows that the homology concordance group modulo knots coming from $S^3$ contains an infinite-rank summand. The techniques used here generalize the classification program established in previous papers regarding the local equivalence group of knot Floer complexes over $\mathbb{F}[U, V]/(UV)$. Our results extend this approach to complexes defined over a broader class of rings.

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arXiv2020

Corks, involutions, and Heegaard Floer homology

Building on the algebraic framework developed by Hendricks, Manolescu, and Zemke, we introduce and study a set of Floer-theoretic invariants aimed at detecting corks. Our invariants obstruct the extension of a given involution over any homology ball, rather than a particular contractible manifold. Unlike previous approaches, we do not utilize any closed 4-manifold topology or contact topology. Instead, we adapt the formalism of local equivalence coming from involutive Heegaard Floer homology. As an application, we define a modification $\Theta^{\tau}_{\mathbb{Z}}$ of the homology cobordism group which takes into account an involution on each homology sphere, and prove that this admits a $\mathbb{Z}^\infty$-subgroup of strongly non-extendable corks. The group $\Theta^{\tau}_{\mathbb{Z}}$ can also be viewed as a refinement of the bordism group of diffeomorphisms. Using our invariants, we furthermore establish several new families of corks and prove that various known examples are strongly non-extendable. Our main computational tool is a monotonicity theorem which constrains the behavior of our invariants under equivariant negative-definite cobordisms, and an explicit method of constructing such cobordisms via equivariant surgery.

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arXiv2019

The 0-concordance monoid admits an infinite linearly independent set

Under the relation of $0$-concordance, the set of knotted 2-spheres in $S^4$ forms a commutative monoid $\mathcal{M}_0$ with the operation of connected sum. Sunukjian has recently shown that $\mathcal{M}_0$ contains a submonoid isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^{\ge 0}$. In this note, we show that $\mathcal{M}_0$ contains a submonoid isomorphic to $(\mathbb{Z}^{\ge 0})^\infty$. Our argument relates the $0$-concordance monoid to linear independence of certain Seifert solids in the (spin) rational homology cobordism group.

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arXiv2018

Connected Heegaard Floer homology of sums of Seifert fibrations

We compute the connected Heegaard Floer homology (defined by Hendricks, Hom, and Lidman) for a large class of 3-manifolds, including all linear combinations of Seifert fibered homology spheres. We show that for such manifolds, the connected Floer homology completely determines the local equivalence class of the associated $ι$-complex. Some identities relating the rank of the connected Floer homology to the Rokhlin invariant and the Neumann-Siebenmann invariant are also derived. Our computations are based on combinatorial models inspired by the work of Némethi on lattice homology.

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arXiv2018

An infinite-rank summand of the homology cobordism group

We show that the three-dimensional homology cobordism group admits an infinite-rank summand. It was previously known that the homology cobordism group contains a $\mathbb{Z}^\infty$-subgroup and a $\mathbb{Z}$-summand. Our proof proceeds by introducing an algebraic variant of the involutive Heegaard Floer package of Hendricks-Manolescu and Hendricks-Manolescu-Zemke. This is inspired by an analogous argument in the setting of knot concordance due to the second author.

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arXiv2018

On homology cobordism and local equivalence between plumbed manifolds

We establish a structural understanding of the involutive Heegaard Floer homology for all linear combinations of almost-rational (AR) plumbed three-manifolds. We use this to show that the Neumann-Siebenmann invariant is a homology cobordism invariant for all linear combinations of AR plumbed homology spheres. As a corollary, we prove that if $Y$ is a linear combination of AR plumbed homology spheres with $μ(Y) = 1$, then $Y$ is not torsion in the homology cobordism group. A general computation of the involutive Heegaard Floer correction terms for these spaces is also included.

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