Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Mathematics / David Yetter / We generalize the definition of the framed Kontsevich integral initially presented in [LM1]. We study the behavior of the renormalized framed Kontsevich integral Z[hat]_f under band sum moves and show that it can be further renormalized into some invariant Z[widetilde]_f that is well-behaved under moves for which link components of interest are locally put on top of each other. Originally, Le, Murakami and Ohtsuki ([LM5], [LM6]) showed that another choice of normalization is better suited for moves for which link components involved in the band sum move are put side by side. We show the choice of renormalization leads to essentially the same invariant and that the use of one renormalization or the other is just a matter of preference depending on whether one decides to have a horizontal or a vertical band sum. Much of the work on Z[widetilde]_f relies on using the tangle chord diagrams version of Z[hat]_f ([ChDu]). This leads us to introducing a matrix representation of tangle chord diagrams, where each chord is represented by a matrix, and tangle chord diagrams of degree $m$ are represented by stacks of m matrices, one for each chord making up the diagram. We show matrix congruences for some appropriately chosen matrices implement on the modified Kontsevich integral Z[widetilde]_f the band sum move on links. We show how Z[widetilde]_f in matrix notation behaves under the Reidemeister moves and under orientation changes. We show that for a link L in plat position, Z_f(L) in book notation is enough to recover its expression in terms of chord diagrams. We elucidate the relation between Z[check]_f and Z[widetilde]_f and show the quotienting procedure to produce 3-manifold invariants from those as introduced in [LM5] is blind to the choice of normalization, and thus any choice of normalization leads to a 3-manifold invariant.

Dehn surgery and the notion of reducible manifolds are both important tools in the study of 3-manifolds. The Cabling Conjecture of Francisco González-Acuña and Hamish Short describes the purported circumstances under which Dehn surgery can produce a reducible manifold. This thesis extends the work of James Allen Hoffman, who proved the Cabling Conjecture for knots of bridge number up to four. Hoffman built upon the combinatorial machinery used by Cameron Gordon and John Luecke in their solution to the knot complement problem. The combinatorial approach starts with the graphs of intersection of a thin level sphere of the knot and the reducing sphere in the surgered manifold. Gordon and Luecke's proof then proceeds by induction on certain cycles. Hoffman provides more insight into the structure of the base case of the induction (i.e. in an innermost cycle or a graph containing no such cycles). Hoffman uses this structure in a case-by-case proof of the Cabling Conjecture for knots of bridge number up to four. We find trees with specific properties in the graph of intersection, and use them to provethe existence of structure which provides lower bounds on the number of the aforementioned innermost cycles. Our results combined with a recent lower bound on the number of vertices inside the innermost cycles succinctly prove the conjecture for bridge number up to five and suggests an approach to the conjecture for knots of higher bridge number.

Formulas which derive common concordance invariants for satellite knots tend to lose information regarding the axis a of the satellite operation R(a,J). The Alexander polynomial, the Blanchfield linking form, and Casson-Gordon invariants all fail to distinguish concordance classes of satellites obtained by slightly varying the axis. By applying higher-order invariants and using filtrations of the knot concordance group, satellite concordance may be distinguished by determining which term of the derived series of the fundamental group of the knot complement the axes lie. There is less hope when the axes lie in the same term. We introduce new conditions to distinguish these latter classes by considering the axes in higher-order Alexander modules in three situations. In the first case, we find that R(a,J) and R(b,J) are non-concordant when a and b have distinct orders viewed as elements of the classical Alexander module of R. In the second, we show that R(a,J) and R(b,J) may be distinguished when the classical Blanchfield form of a with itself differs from that of b with itself. Ultimately, this allows us to find infinitely many concordance classes of R(-,J) whenever R has nontrivial Alexander polynomial. Finally, we find sufficient conditions to distinguish these satellites when the axes represent equivalent elements of the classical Alexander module by analyzing higher-order Alexander modules and localizations thereof.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Joshua E. Greene / We study ribbon cobordisms between 3-manifolds, i.e. rational homology cobordisms that admit a handle decomposition without 3-handles. We first define and study the more general notion of quasi-ribbon cobordisms, and analyze how lattice-theoretic methods may be used to obstruct the existence of a quasi-ribbon cobordism between two given 3-manifolds. Building on this and on previous work of Lisca, we then determine when there exists such a cobordism between two connected sums of lens spaces. In particular, we show that if an oriented rational homology sphere Y admitsa quasi-ribbon cobordism to a lens space, then Y must be homeomorphic to L(n, 1), up to orientation-reversal. As an application, we classify ribbon χ-concordances between connected sums of 2-bridge links. Lastly, we show that the notion of ribbon rational homology cobordisms yields a partial order on the set consisting of aspherical 3-manifolds and lens spaces, thus providing evidence towards a conjecture formulated by Daemi, Lidman, Vela-Vick and Wong. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Mathematics.

In this thesis we deal with combinatorial and geometric properties of arc complexes and triangulation graphs, and we will provide some applications to the study of the mapping class group and to the Teichmüller theory of a bordered surface. The thesis is divided into two parts. In the former we deal with the problem of combinatorial rigidity of arc complexes. In the latter we study some large-scale properties of the arc complex and the 1-skeleton of its dual, the so-called ideal triangulation graph.

Thesis advisor: Tao Li / This dissertation explores a relationship between fibered knots and Heegaard splittings in closed, connected, orientable three-manifolds. We show that a fibered knot, which has a sufficiently complicated monodromy, induces a minimal genus Heegaard splitting that is unique up to isotopy. Moreover, we show that fibered knots in the three-sphere has complexity at most 3. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Mathematics.

The classical spherical and Euclidean geometries are easy to visualize and correspond to spaces with constant curvature 0 and +1 respectively. The geometry with constant curvature −1, hyperbolic geometry, is much more complex. A powerful theorem of Mostow and Prasad states that in all dimensions at least 3, the geometry of a finite-volume hyperbolic manifold (a space with local d-dimensional hyperbolic geometry) is determined by the manifold's fundamental group (a topological invariant of the manifold). A cusp is a part of a finite-volume hyperbolic manifold that is infinite but has finite volume (cf. the surface of revolution of a tractrix has finite area but is infinite). All non-compact hyperbolic manifolds have cusps, but only finitely many of them. In the fundamental group of such a manifold, each cusp corresponds to a cusp subgroup, and each cusp subgroup is associated to a point on the boundary of H^d, which can be identified with the (d − 1)-sphere. It is known that there are many one-cusped two- and three-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds. This thesis studies restrictions on the existence of 1-cusped hyperbolic d-dimensional manifolds for d ≥ 3. Congruence subgroups belong to a special class of hyperbolic manifolds called arithmetic manifolds. Much is known about arithmetic hyperbolic 3- manifolds, but less is known about arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds of higher dimensions. An important infinite class of arithmetic d-manifolds is obtained using SO(n, 1; Z), a subset of the integer matrices with determinant 1. This is known to produce 1-cusped examples for small d. Taking special congruence conditions modulo a fixed number, we obtain congruence subgroups of SO(n, 1; Z) which also have cusps but possibly more than one. We ask what congruence subgroups with one cusp exist in SO(n, 1; Z). We consider the prime congruence level case, then generalize to arbitrary levels. Covering space theory implies a relation between the number of cusps and the image of a cusp in the mod p reduced group SO(d+ 1, p), an analogue of the classical rotation Lie group. We use the sizes of maximal subgroups of groups SO(d + 1, p), and the maximal subgroups' geometric actions on finite vector spaces, to bound the number of cusps from below. Let Ω(d, 1; Z) be the index 2 subgroup in SO(d, 1; Z) that consists of all elements of SO(d, 1; Z) with spinor norm +1. We show that for d = 5 and d ≥ 7 and all q not a power of 2, there is no 1-cusped level-q congruence subgroup of Ω(d, 1; Z). For d = 4, 6 and all q not of the form 2^a3^b, there is no 1-cusped level-q congruence subgroup of Ω(d, 1; Z). / Mathematics

<p>Let $\Theta_n$ be the group of $h$-cobordism classes of homotopy spheres, i.e. closed smooth manifolds which are homotopy equivalent to $S^n$, under connected sum. A homotopy sphere $\Sigma^n$ which is not diffeomorphic to $S^n$ is called ``exotic.'' For an oriented smooth manifold $M^n$, the {\bf inertia group} $I(M)\subset\Theta_n$ is defined as the subgroup of homotopy spheres such that $M\#\Sigma$ is orientation-preserving diffeomorphic to $M$. This thesis collects together a number of results on $I(M)$ and provides a summary of some fundamental results in Geometric Topology. The focus is on dimension $7$, since it is the smallest known dimension with exotic spheres. The thesis also provides two new results: one specifically about $7$-manifolds with certain $S^1$ actions, and the other about the effect of surgery on the homotopy inertia group $I_h(M)$.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Let Knots be the abelian monoid of isotopy classes of knots S1 ⊂ S3 under connected sum, and let C be the topological knot concordance group of knots modulo slice knots. Cochran-Orr-Teichner [COT03] defined a filtration of C: C ⊃ F(0) ⊃ F(0.5) ⊃ F(1) ⊃ F(1.5) ⊃ F(2) ⊃ . . .The quotient C/F(0.5) is isomorphic to Levine’s algebraic concordance group AC1 [Lev69]; F(0.5) is the algebraically slice knots. The quotient C/F(1.5) contains all metabelian concordance obstructions. The Cochran-Orr-Teichner (1.5)-level two stage obstructions map the concordance class of a knot to a pointed set (COT (C/1.5),U). We define an abelian monoid of chain complexes P, with a monoid homomorphism Knots → P. We then define an algebraic concordance equivalence relation on P and therefore a group AC2 := P/ ~, our second order algebraic knot concordance group. The results of this thesis can be summarised in the following diagram: . That is, we define a group homomorphism C → AC2 which factors through C/F(1.5). We can extract the two stage Cochran-Orr-Teichner obstruction theory from AC2: the dotted arrows are morphisms of pointed sets. Our second order algebraic knot concordance group AC2 is a single stage obstruction group.