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Stefan Friedl

Publications and source records attributed to Stefan Friedl.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

Cosmetic crossings and Seifert matrices

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.

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arXiv2012

Twisted Alexander polynomials of hyperbolic knots

We study a twisted Alexander polynomial naturally associated to a hyperbolic knot in an integer homology 3-sphere via a lift of the holonomy representation to SL(2, C). It is an unambiguous symmetric Laurent polynomial whose coefficients lie in the trace field of the knot. It contains information about genus, fibering, and chirality, and moreover is powerful enough to sometimes detect mutation. We calculated this invariant numerically for all 313,209 hyperbolic knots in S^3 with at most 15 crossings, and found that in all cases it gave a sharp bound on the genus of the knot and determined both fibering and chirality. We also study how such twisted Alexander polynomials vary as one moves around in an irreducible component X_0 of the SL(2, C)-character variety of the knot group. We show how to understand all of these polynomials at once in terms of a polynomial whose coefficients lie in the function field of X_0. We use this to help explain some of the patterns observed for knots in S^3, and explore a potential relationship between this universal polynomial and the Culler-Shalen theory of surfaces associated to ideal points.

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arXiv2011

Poincaré duality and degrees of twisted Alexander polynomials

We prove duality theorems for twisted Reidemeister torsions and twisted Alexander polynomials generalizing the results of Turaev. As a corollary we determine the parity of the degrees of twisted Alexander polynomials of 3-manifolds in many cases.

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arXiv2011

The decategorification of sutured Floer homology

We define a torsion invariant T for every balanced sutured manifold (M,g), and show that it agrees with the Euler characteristic of sutured Floer homology SFH. The invariant T is easily computed using Fox calculus. With the help of T, we prove that if (M,g) is complementary to a Seifert surface of an alternating knot, then SFH(M,g) is either 0 or Z in every spin^c structure. T can also be used to show that a sutured manifold is not disk decomposable, and to distinguish between Seifert surfaces. The support of SFH gives rise to a norm z on H_2(M, \partial M; R). Then T gives a lower bound on the norm z, which in turn is at most the sutured Thurston norm x^s. For closed three-manifolds, it is well known that Floer homology determines the Thurston norm, but we show that z < x^s can happen in general. Finally, we compute T for several wide classes of sutured manifolds.

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arXiv2011

Approximations to the volume of hyperbolic knots

We present computational data and heuristic arguments which suggest that given a hyperbolic knot the volume correlates with its determinant, the Mahler measure of its Alexander polynomial and the Mahler measure of the twisted Alexander polynomial corresponding to the discrete and faithful SL(2,C)-representation.

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arXiv2011

Symplectic 4--manifolds with K = 0 and the Lubotzky alternative

In this paper we use the Lubotzky alternative for finitely generated linear groups to determine which 4-manifolds admitting a free circle action can be endowed with a symplectic structure with trivial canonical class. The content of this paper partly overlaps with the content of the unpublished preprint "Symplectic 4-manifolds with a free circle action" (arXiv:0801.1313 [math.GT]).

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arXiv2011

Construction of symplectic structures on 4-manifolds with a free circle action

Let $M$ be a closed 4-manifold with a free circle action. If the orbit manifold $N^3$ satisfies an appropriate fibering condition, then we show how to represent a cone in $H^2(M;\R)$ by symplectic forms. This generalizes earlier constructions by Thurston, Bouyakoub and Fernández-Gray-Morgan. In the case that $M$ is the product 4-manifold $S^1\times N$ our construction complements the results of \cite{FV08} (arXiv:0805:1234 [math.GT]) and allows us to completely determine the symplectic cone of such 4-manifolds. The content of this paper partly overlaps with the content of the unpublished preprint "Symplectic 4-manifolds with a free circle action" (arXiv:0801.1313 [math.GT]).

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arXiv2010

An Injectivity Theorem for Casson-Gordon Type Representations relating to the Concordance of Knots and Links

In the study of homology cobordisms, knot concordance and link concordance, the following technical problem arises frequently: let $π$ be a group and let $M \to N$ be a homomorphism between projective $\Z[π]$-modules such that $\Z_p \otimes_{\Z[π]} M\to \Z_p \otimes_{\Z[π]} N$ is injective; for which other right $\Z[π]$-modules $V$ is the induced map $V \otimes_{\Z[π]} M\to V\otimes_{\Z[π]}N$ also injective? Our main theorem gives a new criterion which combines and generalizes many previous results.

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arXiv2010

Twisted torsion invariants and link concordance

The twisted torsion of a 3-manifold is well-known to be zero whenever the corresponding twisted Alexander module is non-torsion. Under mild extra assumptions we introduce a new twisted torsion invariant which is always non-zero. We show how this torsion invariant relates to the twisted intersection form of a bounding 4-manifold, generalizing a theorem of Milnor. Using this result, we give new obstructions to 3-manifolds being homology cobordant and to links being concordant. These obstructions are sufficiently strong to detect that the Bing double of the figure eight knot is not slice.

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arXiv2010

Twisted Alexander polynomials detect fibered 3-manifolds

A classical result in knot theory says that the Alexander polynomial of a fibered knot is monic and that its degree equals twice the genus of the knot. This result has been generalized by various authors to twisted Alexander polynomials and fibered 3-manifolds. In this paper we show that the conditions on twisted Alexander polynomials are not only necessary but also sufficient for a 3-manifold to be fibered. By previous work of the authors this result implies that if a manifold of the form S^1 x N^3 admits a symplectic structure, then N fibers over S^1. In fact we will completely determine the symplectic cone of S^1 x N in terms of the fibered faces of the Thurston norm ball of N.

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arXiv2010

Residual properties of graph manifold groups

Let $f\colon M\to N$ be a continuous map between closed irreducible graph manifolds with infinite fundamental group. Perron and Shalen showed that if $f$ induces a homology equivalence on all finite covers, then $f$ is in fact homotopic to a homeomorphism. Their proof used the statement that every graph manifold is finitely covered by a $3$-manifold whose fundamental group is residually $p$ for every prime $p$. We will show that this statement regarding graph manifold groups is not true in general, but we will show how to modify the argument of Perron and Shalen to recover their main result. As a by-product we will determine all semidirect products $\Z \ltimes \Z^d$ which are residually $p$ for every prime $p$.

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arXiv2010

The cobordism group of homology cylinders

Garoufalidis and Levine introduced the homology cobordism group of homology cylinders over a surface. This group can be regarded as a generalization of the mapping class group. Using torsion invariants, we show that the abelianization of this group is infinitely generated provided that the first Betti number of the surface is positive. In particular, this shows that the group is not perfect. This answers questions of Garoufalidis-Levine and Goda-Sakasai. Furthermore we show that the abelianization of the group has infinite rank for the case that the surface has more than one boundary component. These results hold for the homology cylinder analogue of the Torelli group as well.

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arXiv2010

A survey of twisted Alexander polynomials

We give a short introduction to the theory of twisted Alexander polynomials of a 3--manifold associated to a representation of its fundamental group. We summarize their formal properties and we explain their relationship to twisted Reidemeister torsion. We then give a survey of the many applications of twisted invariants to the study of topological problems. We conclude with a short summary of the theory of higher order Alexander polynomials.

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arXiv2009

Twisted Alexander polynomials and fibered 3-manifolds

In a series of papers the authors proved that twisted Alexander polynomials detect fibered 3-manifolds, and they showed that this implies that a closed 3-manifold N is fibered if and only if S^1 x N is symplectic. In this note we summarize some of the key ideas of the proofs. We also give new evidence to the conjecture that if $ is a symplectic 4-manifold with a free S^1-action, then the orbit space is fibered.

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arXiv2009

New topologically slice knots

In the early 1980's Mike Freedman showed that all knots with trivial Alexander polynomial are topologically slice (with fundamental group Z). This paper contains the first new examples of topologically slice knots. In fact, we give a sufficient homological condition under which a knot is slice with fundamental group Z semi-direct product Z[1/2]. These two fundamental groups are known to be the only solvable ribbon groups. Our homological condition implies that the Alexander polynomial equals (t-2)(t^{-1}-2) but also contains information about the metabelian cover of the knot complement (since there are many non-slice knots with this Alexander polynomial). Erratum (attached): In Figure 1.5 we gave an incorrect example for Theorem 1.3. We present a correct example.

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arXiv2008

L^2-Betti numbers of plane algebraic curves

In [DJL07] it was shown that if A is an affine hyperplane arrangement in C^n, then at most one of the L^2-Betti numbers of its complement is non--zero. We will prove an analogous statement for complements of any algebraic curve in C^2. Furthermore we also recast and extend results of [LM06] in terms of L^2-Betti numbers.

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arXiv2008

Twisted Alexander polynomials, symplectic 4-manifolds and surfaces of minimal complexity

Let M be a 4-manifold which admits a free circle action. We use twisted Alexander polynomials to study the existence of symplectic structures and the minimal complexity of surfaces in M. The results on the existence of symplectic structures summarize previous results of the authors in [FV08a,FV08,FV07]. The results on surfaces of minimal complexity are new.

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