d invariants obstruction to sliceness of a class of algebraically slice knotsMPIM

by Chen Zhang (Ruhr University Bochum)

Tuesday Apr 1, 2025, 11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Europe/Berlin

MPIM, Vivatsgasse, 7 - Lecture Hall (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics)

Low-dimensional topology seminar

A long-standing question in knot theory asks whether the set of algebraic knots is linearly independent in the knot concordance group; in other words, whether every nontrivial linear combination of algebraic knots fails to be slice. Since a slice knot is necessarily algebraically slice, a natural refinement of this question is whether an algebraically slice linear combination of algebraic knots must also be smoothly slice. In this talk, I will introduce an obstruction from Heegaard Floer d-invariants and discuss the techniques for computation.