arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Maciej Borodzik.
We apply Heegaard Floer homology to study deformations of singularities of plane algebraic curves. Our main result provides an obstruction to the existence of a deformation between two singularities. Generalizations include the case of multiple singularities. The obstruction is formulated in terms of a semicontinuity property for semigroups associated to the singularities.
We prove that an embedded cobordism between manifolds with boundary can be split into a sequence of right product and left product cobordisms, if the codimension of the embedding is at least two. This is a topological counterpart of the algebraic splitting theorem for embedded cobordisms of the first author, A. Nemethi and A. Ranicki. In the codimension one case, we provide a slightly weaker statement. We also give proofs of rearrangement and cancellation theorems for handles of embedded submanifolds with boundary.
The algebraic unknotting number u_a(K) of a knot K was introduced by Hitoshi Murakami. It equals the minimal number of crossing changes needed to turn K into an Alexander polynomial one knot. In a previous paper the authors used the Blanchfield form of a knot K to define an invariant n(K) and proved that n(K) is a lower bound on u_a(K). They also showed that n(K) subsumes all previous classical lower bounds on the (algebraic) unknotting number. In this paper we prove that n(K)=u_a(K).
We use topological methods to prove a semicontinuity property of the Hodge spectra for analytic germs defined on an isolated surface singularity. For this we introduce an analogue of the Seifert matrix (the fractured Seifert matrix), and of the Levine--Tristram signatures associated with it, defined for null-homologous links in arbitrary three dimensional manifolds. Moreover, we establish Murasugi type inequalities in the presence of cobordisms of links. It turns out that the fractured Seifert matrix determines the Hodge spectrum and the Murasugi type inequalities can be read as spectrum semicontinuity inequalities.
We compute the average Tristram---Levine signature of any graph link with positive weights in a three sphere, generalizing the results of Kirby and Melvin. The main tools are the Neumann's algorithm for computing the equivariant signatures of graph links and the Reciprocity Law for Dedekind sums.
In [BF12] the authors associated to a knot K an invariant n_R(K) which is defined using the Blanchfield form and which gives a lower bound on the unknotting number. In this paper we express n_R(K) in terms of Levine-Tristram signatures and nullities of K. In the proof we also show that the Blanchfield form with real coefficients is diagonalizable.
We provide an example, which shows that studying homological and homotopical properties of cobordisms between arbitrary, that is not necessarily negative, graph manifolds is not enough to prove the $μ$-constant conjecture of Le Dung Trang in complex dimension 2.
We apply the methods of Heegaard Floer homology to identify topological properties of complex curves in the complex projective plane. As one application, we resolve an open conjecture that constrains the Alexander polynomial of the link of the singular point of the curve in the case that there is exactly one singular point, having connected link, and the curve is of genus 0. Generalizations apply in the case of multiple singular points.
We use purely topological methods to prove the semicontinuity of the mod 2 spectrum of local isolated hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb{C}^{n+1}$, using Seifert forms of high-dimensional non-spherical links, the Levine--Tristram signatures and the generalized Murasugi--Kawauchi inequality obtained in earlier work for cobordisms of links.
We compute rho-invariant for iterated torus knots $K$ for the standard representation of the knot group given by abelianisation. For algebraic knots, this invariant turns out to be very closely related to an invariant of a plane curve singularity, coming from algebraic geometry.
We study deformations of plane curve singularities from an analytic point of view and obtain some new concrete results. We show some rather unexpected properties of Puiseux coefficients treated as functions on a suitably defined parameter space. The methods used in paper are very elementary.
Given a knot K we introduce a new invariant coming from the Blanchfield pairing and we show that it gives a lower bound on the unknotting number of K. This lower bound subsumes the lower bounds given by the Levine-Tristram signatures, by the Nakanishi index and it also subsumes the Lickorish obstruction to the unknotting number being equal to one. Our approach in particular allows us to show for 25 knots with up to 12 crossings that their unknotting number is at least three, most of which are very difficult to treat otherwise.
We compute the Heegaard Floer homology of $S^3_1(K)$ (the (+1) surgery on the torus knot $T_{p,q}$) in terms of the semigroup generated by $p$ and $q$, and we find a compact formula (involving Dedekind sums) for the corresponding Ozsvath--Szabo d-invariant. We relate the result to known knot invariants of $T_{p,q}$ as the genus and the Levine--Tristram signatures. Furthermore, we emphasize the striking resemblance between Heegaard Floer homologies of (+1) and (-1) surgeries on torus knots. This relation is best seen at the level of $τ$ functions.
Based on some analogies with the Hodge theory of isolated hypersurface singularities, we define Hodge-type numerical invariants (called H-numbers) of any, not necessarily algebraic, link in $S^3$. They contain the same information as the (normalized) real Seifert matrix. We study their basic properties, we express the Tristram-Levine signatures and the higher order Alexander polynomial in terms of them. Motivated by singularity theory, we also introduce the spectrum of the link (determined from these H-numbers), and we establish some semicontinuity properties for it.
We use topological methods to study various semicontinuity properties of spectra of singular points of plane algebraic curves and of polynomials in two variables at infinity. Using Seifert forms and the Tristram--Levine signatures of links, we reprove (in a slightly weaker version) a result obtained by Steenbrink and Varchenko on semicontinuity of spectrum at infinity. We also relate the spectrum at infinity of a polynomial with spectra of singular points of a chosen fiber.
We use Morse theoretical arguments to study algebraic curves in C^2. We take an algebraic curve C in C^2 and intersect it with a family of spheres with fixed origin and varying radii. We explain in detail how does the resulting link change when we cross a singular point of C. Applying link invariants as Murasugi's signature and Levine--Tristram signatures we obtain some informations about possible singularities of a curve C in terms of its topology.
Using Bogomolov-Miyaoka-Yau inequality and a Milnor number bound we prove that any algebraic annulus $\mathbb{C}^*$ in $\mathbb{C}^2$ with no self-intersections can have at most three cuspidal singularities.
We study properties of the signature function of the torus knot $T_{p,q}$. First we provide a very elementary proof of the formula for the integral of the signatures over the circle. We obtain also a closed formula for the Tristram--Levine signature of a torus knot in terms of Dedekind sums.