Isotoping and Twisting Knots and Ribbons

. .
By
lain Roderick Aitchison
B.Sc. (Hon.) (University of Melbourne, Australia) 1979
M.Sc. (University of Melbourne, Australia) 1980
C.Phil. (University 0' California) 1983
DISSERTATION
Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of
OOCTOR OF PHIlDSOPHY
in
Mathematics
in the .
GRADUATE DIVISION
OF 1HE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
..'
Approved:
.................... . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Isotoping and Twisting Knots and Ribbons
ABSTRACT
In higher dimensions the Seifert form determines up to isotopy the
geometrically defined "simple" knots. Every classical knot is simple.
However, there are numerous examples for which the Seifert form fails
to provide sufficient distinguishing invariants. It was conjectured
the Alexander polynomial would determine classical fibered knots to
within finitely many possibilities.
This paper addresses the queetd.om "Is there a geometrically defined
class of classical knots for which the Seifert form acts as a complete
invariant?"
Geometric conditions known to place restrictions on the Seifert form
are the properties of being fibered, slice and doubly slice. For fibered
knots Thurston' s classification of diffeomorphisms of surfaces leads to
further subclasses. For fibered ribbon knots, Casson and Gordon have
shown such a knot bounds a ribbon in some homotopy ball whose complement
fibers over the circle with fiber a handlebody. That this ball be stan-
da.rd is .at present knowledge an additional requirement. Doubly slice
knots are known in higher dimensions to interact with codimension one
embedding phenomena.
Our main result is the construction of infinitely many distinct knots
K
i
in 8
3
which are prime, fibered, of genus 2, ribbon, bounding ribbons
in B
4
whose complements fiber over S1 with fiber a handlebody, have mono-
dromy which is pseudo-Anosov, and thus have complements in S.3 admitting
a complete hyperbolic structure, are symmetric slices of the O-spun fig-
ure 8 knot, are doubly slice, being constructed by ambient isotopy of
2
a closed surface in S3. and yet have identical Seifert forms. Thus the
classical dimension is even further removed from the higher ones than
previously expected.
Along the way we construct fibered knots by ambient isotopy of sub-
manifolds of spheres, give a short proof that every closed orlentable
3-manifold has a fibered knot and infinitely many hyperbolic fibered
links and characterise geometrically the simple fibered doubly slice
knots in higher odd dimensions.
Finally we consider the twisting constuction of Stallings and relate
this on the one hand to the Gluck construction on 2-knots and to the
construction of different ribbons by isotopy on the other.
o
1
2
4
5
6
7
CONTENTS
Introduction
Definitions, Notation and Conventions
Fibered Knots
Diffeomorphisms of Surfaces
Slice Knots and Ribbons
Constructing Mapping Tori
Doubly Slice Knots
Further Aspects in Dimension 4
Bibliography
1
6
13
27
43
46
68
71
Isotoping and Twisting Knots arid Ribbons
or
Some Simple Samples of Simple Simple Knots
o INTRODUCTION
The fundamental problem of knot theory is to find sufficient comp-
utable means of distinguishing examples. In higher dimensions the Seif-
ert form distinguishes all odd dimensional simple knots (31), and every
classical knot is simple. However there are many examples in the classi-
cal dimension of knots which are not so distinguished. Simplicity is a
geometric condition, and the natural question is whether there is a geo-
metrically defined class of classical knots for which the abelian invar-
iants arising from the Seifert form form a complete set. Geometric cond-
itions manifest in the form the Seifert form may take, and again for
higher dimensions, algebraic properties are realised geometrically.]
The fundamental difference between the higher and lower dimen-
sional cases is the availability of the techniques of the s-cobordism
theorem and the Whitney trick. Failure of the Whitney trick in dimension
4 leads to much of the richness and pathology of the classical dimension.
For example, in higher dimensions an algebraically slice simple knot is
slice, whereas there are infinitely many examples of distinct classical
knots with trivial abelian invariants, those with Alexander polynomial
1. The recent work of Freedman (16) and Donaldson (57) shows that on the
one hand these are all topologieally slice, but tttat there are many which
cannot bound smooth slices, for reasons relating to possible smooth
structures on 4-dimensional manifolds.
1
For f'ibered knots, the Alexander polynomial cannot be trivial except
f'or the unknot. It has been long known that the only possible fibered
knots of genus 1 are the trefoil and figure 8 knots. Based on the few
examples known at the time, Burde and Neuwirth conjectured that there
were only finitely many distinct examples of fibered knots with a given
Alexander polynomial. Morton (36) showed this to be false at the same
time as Stallings (49), the latter introducing the notion of "twisting"
for the purpose of generating more examples of fibered knots. These ex-
amples were distinguishable by their Alexander modules, from which the
Alexander polynomial arises, and thus the obvious question was whether
the Alexander module determined fibered knots to within finitely many
possibilities. Quach (44) showed that there were abstractly infinitely
many distinct examples with the same Alexander module structure, and
Kanenobu (26) gave the first specific examples of this phenomena. Subse!i'f
uently Morton (37) showed that there are infinitely many distinct fibered
knots for any given possible Alexander module.
Quach and Weber (45) rediscovered the examples of Stallings, and
made the further observation that they are all ribbon knots. Recently,
Bonahon has produced infinitely many distinct examples of fibered knots
with the same Seifert form, with pseudo-Anosov monodromy, but which can-
not be ribbon. In (6 ), he appeals to a recent result of Casson and Gor-
don (58) who show that a necessary condition for a fibered knot to be
ribbon is that the monodromy extend over a handlebody. There are no known
examples of f'ibered ribbon knots not distinguished by their abelian in-
variants.
The condition of being doubly slice places further restrictions on
the Seifert form, and as before, these algebraic conditions are always
2
geometrically realised f'or higher odd dimensional simple knots.
The main result of' this paper is the f'ollowing
Theorem: There are iminitely many distinct knots K in S3 suCh that
n
a) K is prime
n
ii) K is f'ibered of' genus 2
n
iii) K is ribbon, bounding a ribbon R in B
4
n n
iV) B
4
- R f'ibers over S1 with f'iber a handlebody
n
v) K has pseudo-Anosov monodromy, and thus S3 - K admits a
n n
complete Riemannian metric of' constant curvature -1
vi) K is doubly slice
n
vii) K
n
is a SYmmetric slice of' the a-spun f'igure 8 knot
viii) K is constructible by isotopy
n
iX) the Seif'ert f'orm of' K is independent of' n
n
A number of concepts arise in the statement of the theorem, and
accordingly the paper is divided into sections The proof' is construct-
ive, and thus we reach the f'inal result only at the end after a number
of' brief diversions along the way.
In the first section, we give some definitions, and describe briefly
the f'undamental notion of twisting knots, arising from the calculus of'
f'ramed links (30). This is the basic tool of' Stallings (49), Morton (37)
and Bonahon (7) and implicit in Kanenobu (26) and Quach and Weber (4.5).
One of' the aims of this work is to relate this concept to the work of
Casson and Gordon (.58) and to put the results in the broader context of'
four and higher dimensions.
3
4
Section 2 is devoted to fibrations, and we discuss in some detail
the trefoil and figure 8 knots, crucial to our subsequent constructions.
The notion of constructing diffeomorphisms of surfaces and handlebodies
by isotopy in S3 is discussed in this context. We briefly mention the
constructions of fibered knots due to Stallings (49) and apply this to
give a new proof that every closed orientable 3-manifold has a fibered
knot. We also prove
Theorem 2.2 Every closed orientable 3-manifold has infinitely many
fibered links whose complements admit a hyperbolic structure.
An interesting phenomena relating fibered links and hyperbolic structures
in the 3-sphere is introduced.
The monodromy of a fibered knot is a surface diffeomorphism, and so
we discuss Thurston's work in section 3. The techniques of train tracks
is described in the context of distinguishing diffeomorphisms. We prove
Theorem 3.7 Infinitely many distinct pseudo-Anosov maps may be obtain-
ed by ambient isotopy of a genus 2 surface in S3.
Section 4 briefly describes the relationship between the Seifert
form and ribbon knots, .. and the work of Casson and Gordon.
In section 5 we use the construction of section 3 and apply it to
prove
Theorem 5.2 The knots K of Kanenobu are genus 2 fibered ribbon knots
m,n
bounding ribbons in B
4
whose complements fiber with fiber a handlebody.
Theorem 5.4 The knots S of Stallings, Quach and Weber are genus 2
m
fibered ribbon knots, bounding ribbons as in Theo!em 5.2
We also introduce the examples for our main theorem, and the under
lying technique for generating many more,
5
The techniques involved are handlebody decompositions OI 4-maniIolds
and the calculus OI Iramed links.
Doubly slice knots are discussed in section 6, and we prove
Proposition 6.1 The monodromy Ior a simple Iibered doubly slice knot
in S2n+1 determines the SeiIert Iorm.
We then give a new prooI OI a special case OI Zeeman's theorem
Theorem 6.2 (56) IIK is a Iibered knot, then K # -K is doubly slice.
The point OI this prOOI is to introduce a new idea into the study
OI Iibered doubly slice knots, the notion OI "construction by isotopy":
Theorem 6.4
knots in S3.
There exist ininitely many prime Iibered doubly slice
Our construction gives rise to the generation OI zillions OI candi-
dates Ior algebraically doubly slice Iibered classical knots which are
ribbon, but probably not geometrically doubly slice. We conjecture
Conjecture: Every doubly slice Iibered knot is constructable by isotopy.
As evidence Ior this we prove
Theorem 6.5 Every simple, Iibered doubly slice knot in S2n+1, I J f ~ 3,
may be constructed by isotopy.
The construction gives a Iurther maniIestatfuon OI codimension 1
embedding phenomena in the study OI doubly slice knots. We also observe
a phenomena we call synchronicity
Theorem 6.7 Ininitely many doubly slice knots arise synchronously
as Iinite dimensional slices OI ininite dimensional doubly slice knots.
,11
Finally in section 7 we discuss remaining 4-dimensional aspects OI
the main theorem, the Gluck construction and the implications OI "motion"
in the study OI knots and ribbons.
1 DEFINITIONS, NOI'ATION AND CONVENTIONS
We work in the smooth category unless otherwise stated.
As general references, we use Gordon (22), Kervaire (29) and Rolfsen et6).
n. . n n+2
An n-knot K as the amage of an embedded n-sphere S in S
A Seifert manifold W
n+1
for K
n
is any connected, orientable submanifold
of Sn+2 with boundary K
n
Every knot has infinitely many Seifert mani-
( )
n+2 )
folds. The Qomplement C K of K is S - K, and the exterior X(K is
the complement of an open tubular neighbourhood of K.
In odd dimensions, the Seifert form of a knot K
2n-1
is the integral
bilinear form defined H (W
2n;
Z)/ Torsion X H (W
2n;
Z)/ Torsion by
n n
the linking matrix V ::: (V..) with respect to the Seifert manifold W
2n

and choice of basis (a.) for H (W
2n;
Z)/Torsion. Here V.. :::
n J
is the linking number in S2n+l determined by taking representative
cycles a
i
and a. for the classes (a.) and (a.), pushing a. off W
2n,
J J J
using the orientation to choose a direction, to obtain ai:, and calcul-
J
ating the linking number. The matrix V is the Seifert matrix for K with
respect to the Seifert manifold and basis chosen.
Examples: In fig.i, we give the knots constructed by Stallings (49),
and rediscovered in Quach and Weber (45). These knots will be construct-
ed as representatives of a much larger class later in this paper. We
shall denote them by S In fig.2, we give a similar class, K which
m m,n
were originally discovered in Kanenobe (26), and rediscovered by the
author, and these too playa role in what follows.
6
fig. 1
7
The knots of Stallings,
Quach and Weber, S
m
m full twists
a+ b+ c+
a 0 0 1 0
b 0 0 1 1
= V Seifert matrix
c
1 0 1 0
d 1 1 0 m-1
Under row and column operations, we have:
t
Alexander module presentation tv - V equivalent to
r
- t + 1 -mt
J
0
t
2
_ t +
8
b
+
b+
+
d+
a c
a 0 0 -1 0
b 0 0 -1 -1
Seifert
c -1 0 n-1 -n
matrix
d 1 -1 -n m+n-1
Alexander [ t
2
_ : +
1
t(n-m) ]
module t
2
- 3t + 1
fig. 2
For these examples, we see that there is a genus 2 punctured surface
serving as Seifert manifold, and for each we have chosen the basis
represented by the embedded circles a,b,c,d.
Since W
2n
is not unique, V is not well defined. However, the Thom-
Pontryagin construction shows that every Seifert manifold is cobordant
to any other. This leads to the notion of S-equivalence of Seifert mat-
rices:
where a and b are respectively integer row and column vectors. An elem-
entary reduction is the reverse operation.
Two Seifert matrices V and V' are S-equivalent if each 'can be obt-
ained from the other by a sequence of unimodular integral congruences,
elementary enlargements and reductions.
From V we obtain a presentation matrix tv - v
t
for the Alexander
module over z[t,t-
1]
for the knot K. This depends only on the S-equiv-
alence class of V, and the presentation may often be simplified by row
and column operations. For figures 1 and 2 we obtain the simpler matric-
es shown. From the Alexander module, the elementary ideals and i
t h
Alexander polynomials may be defined, and are invariants of the knot
type. These are so-called abelian invariants of the knot. In particular
Definition: A(t) = det (tv - V
t)
is the Alexander polynomial.
9
For the examples of 1 and 2, only two Alexander polynomials arise.
10
In the first case, the knots are distinguished by their Alexander module
but for the second class, when m = n we see that the knots have the same
abelian invariants, and must be distinguished by other means. We shall
see later that all these examples are fibered, the first class having
been discovered as counterexamples "btl the conjecture of Burde and
Neuwirth that there were at most finitely many distinct ftbered knots
wi th the same Alexander polynomial. Other examples of t ~ i s phenomena
have been constructed by Morton <:36) using a different technique. Be-
fore discussing fibered knots in detail, we consider techniques for con-
structing knots whose Seifert forms have some specified form.
In the classical dimension, a Seifert manifold is always a punct-
ured orientable surface. As such, it is a neighbourhood of its 1-spine,
and thus every knot in S3 arises by adding any number of twisted bands
to a disc, provided that the resulting object is orientable and has one
boundary component.
It is convenient to use a representation of the knot or surface, in
which the object appears unknotted, all twisting and linking being en-
coded in a link of unknotted framed disjoint unlinked circles in the
complement. In its simplest form, we have the equivalence of the two
figures in fig.3 and fig.4:
J
F
fig.4
~
(-1) F'
We say that K' (resp. F) is obtained from K (resp. ') by twisting
once along the unknotted circle J. In general, if wetwist k times about
an unknotted circle J" we remove J and take as resulting object that ob-
tained by giving k full twists to everything passing through the disc
bounded by J. For more details we refer to Rolfsen and Kirby (30). It
should be clear that every knot may be "unknotted" in this way.
A boundary link is any link arising as the boundary of a
disjoint embedding of once-punctured orientable surfaces in S3.
There is the obvious generalisation to higher dimensions, but in
the classical dimension there is additional signifigance in the case
where there are two components, one of which is unknotted in S3;
Proposition:!.1 Let K, J be components of a boundary link, with J the
unknot. Then any knot KI obtained from K by twisting about J has the
same Seifert form as K, and thus the same abelian invariants.
11
Proof: Choose a Seifert surface for K, disjoint from that of J, with
embedded circles on F representing a basis for H
1(F;
Z). Push off each
circle a
i
to obtain an embedded circle a ~ in a neighbourhood o.f F. We
thus have an object given by the data (F, K, (a., a:), transformed by
]. ].
twisting about J to (F u, K', (a!, a! ')). We claim that lk( a., a ~ ) is the
]. ]. ]. J
same as lk( a! ,a~ I ). This is because each of ai' a ~ links J algebraically
]. J J
zero times, as J bounds a surface disjoint from F, and so twisting does
not change the linking numbers. See fig. 5 $
a:
a
fig; 5
Examples: This construction immediately gives rise to infinitely many
12
distinct examples with the same abelian invariants as the unknot r Merely
twist about either component of a boundary link, both of whose component s
are unknotted, as in the following fig.6.Such a link is a special case
of a Brunnian link. one for<wn.rebh the removal of any component gives
the unlink.
t.(t) = 1

( -1)
fig.6
That this construction gives rise to the same phenomena for fibered
links and knots will be considered in the next section. For the moment,
we comPare the classical dimension with the situation in higher
sions:
Definition: A knot K
2n-1
in S2n+1 is simple if it bounds a Seifert
manifold W
2n
which is (n-1)-connected.
Hence in the classical dimension, every knot simple. On the
other hand, we have the remarkable theorem of Levine (31):
Theorem: 12 Two simple knots K, K' in S2n+1 , 2, are isotopic if and
only if they have S-equivalent Seifert forms.
An analogous result holds for even See Kearton (28).
Thus the classical dimension offers much more complicated structure. A
natural question is then, is it possible to find a class of knots, char-
acterised by some geometric condition, for which the Seifert form acts
as a complete invariant for the isotopy class?
2 FIBERED KNarS
The role of fibrations over the circle in 3-manifold theory was
brought to the fore in the fundamental paper of Stallings (48). For
knot complements in S3, it was soon realised that the only examples for
which the fiber is of genus one are the trefoil and the figure 8 knot.
This was the motivation for the conjecture of Burde and Neuwirth, coup-
led with lack of examples for higher genus. Techniques for constructing
fibered knots were subsequently given by Stallings in (49), and Harer
(23) showed that every fibered knot or link stably arises using two of
the techniques, twisting and plumbing, the lattercnotion having been
used by Murasugi (38) .. previously.
Fibrations over S1: We begin with a more general cont.ext, than knot
complements.
Definition: A fibration over S1 with fiber F is any manifold
arising as the quotient of F X [-1, 1) under the equivalence relation
(x, -1)"" (f(x), 1) where f: F......:;.. F is some diffeomorphism.
13
Note: When F is a manifold with boundary, we will require f to rest-
rict to the identity in a neighbourhood of the boundary. We shall only
be concerned in what follows with f o,n;ientation preserving. We shall
denote the fibration by F X
f
S1 or M
f
when the context makes interpret"-
ation clear.
Definition: A fibered knot K in Sn+2
i s
a knot such that X(K) is a
smooth fibration over S1.
Note that the unknot is a fibered knot. More generally, the fiber
F is a natural Seifert manifold for K, and the diffeomorphism f - the
monodromy - is defined only up to isotopy and conjugation. The induced
maps : H*(F; z ) ~ H*(F; Z) will also be ref'erred to as "the aonos
dromy" when the context excludes ambiguity.
In the classical dimension, themonodromy has characteristic poly-
14
nomial which is exactly the Alexander polynomial f'or the knot, modulo
f'actors t
S
The degree of' the polynomial is twice the genus of' the f'iber.
Moreover the monodromy may be recovered f'rom the Seif'ert f'orm V, corres-
ponding to the Seif'ert surf'ace the f'iber of' the f'ibration, by taking
-1 t
M=V V. Up to sign, the same f'ormula holds f'or the monodromy of' any
fibered simple knot in higher dimensions. We also note that in the case
of fibered knots in S3, the fiber surf'ace is the unique Seifert surface
of minimal genus. Furthermore, note that in the cases just considered,
the Seifert form is in fact unimodular.
It is an unsolved problem to determine the extent to which a Seif-
ert f'orm can be recovered from a given monodromy. See Durfee (13).
We will be constructing fibrations by hand, in the following sense:
If asked to describe a simple example of a fibration, one might respond
by taking some physical object in R
3,
moving it around a circle while
deforming it in some way, and returning it to its original position in
some twisted f'ashion. For example, the following figures we see the
trfoil and figure 8 knots braided inside a solid torus S1 X D
2:
7
In each case, the disc D
2
intersects the knot in 3 points. If we
remove the knot, and push the thrice punctured disc around the circle,
it undergoes a non-trivial dif'feomorphism, giving a non-trivial bundle.
In this way we construct non-trivial diffeomorphisms of a bounded
surface in 3
3
by isotopy. Less trivial examples arise by considering
the fibration associated to the complements of the trefoil and figure 8
knots in 3
3
. In this case, the genus one fiber, when pushed around the
fibration, undergoes a diffeomorphism which plays a signifigant role in
the construction of the knots Sand K of figs. 1 and 2. Abstractly
m m,n
we know the monodromy, but we will need to see the effect on a chosen
set of embedded circles representing a basis for H
1(T
2;
Z) where T
2
is
o 0
the punctured torus.
Case 1: The trefoil.
A convenient picture for the monodromy may be found in Rolfsen. The
monodromy is periodic, of period 6, as illustrated in the figure:
fig.8
We wish to have the knot fixed, and also to see the image of the
i-spine indicated. Isotoping the O-spine q back to its original posit-
ion, we see that the arc joining the fixed po,;int p on the boundary to q
may be presumed fixed by the monodromy. The configuration below is isot-
1.5
opic to that above.
fig.9
16
If;'we view T
2
as obtained by identifying opposite sides of a square,
2
considered as the fundamental domain in the universal covering space R ,
the monodromy corresponds to the map induced by the matrix
The puncture corresponds to removing a neighbourhood
of the vertices as indicated:
fig.10
The diffeomorphism may be constructed by Dehn twisting to the left

-e

along the circles C

1
and C
2
as shown:
fig.11
The key observation is that the fibration of 8
3
- trefoil leads to
a diffeomorphism of a closed surface of genus 2. We thicken T
2
in 8
3
to
, 0
obtain a neighbourhood of the fiber. This is a genus 2 handlebody, on
the boundary of which we see the original Pushing T
2
around the
Oi' 0
fibration, the handlebody undergoes a dif'feomorphism, obtained by cutting
along the C
1
C
1
and C
2
C
2
, twisting to the lef't and reglueing. The
induced map on the boundary is thus the composition of Dehn twists
-1 -1
to to to t
c
' where t means a right handed Dehn twist about c.
221 1 c
fig.12
Carrying out an ambient isotopy in 8
3
we obtain a more convenient
picture for later use:
fig.i3
17
The fibration of the :figure 8 knot complement does not lend itself
to such a convenient description. Fortunately, Birman and Williams ( 5)
have given e:lpllcit pictures which resUlt in the diffeomorphism shown in
fig.14, when we push the punctured torus around the :fibration. That the
arc pq is preserved up to isotopy - a fact not explicit in (5 ) - can
be easily deduced by considering as before the lift to the universal
cover R
2
This corresponds to the matrix r2 -1] Using the same model
for T; as with the trefoil, l4 1
it is clear that the arc pq from the fixed point on the boundary to the
O-spine is preserved under the isotopy of T
2
from the linearly induced
form to that corresponding to the fibration in fig. 14. This is shown in
fig.15.
18
fig.14
>
fig.15
-1
This may be achieved. by the composition of Dehn twists t
c
t
c
1 2
19
fig.16
As with the trefoil, we obtain an induced diffeomorphism of the
genus 2 handlebody, obtained by isotopy in 8
3
, which on boundary may
be described. by t
B
t;l
t al t c
as in fig.17.
1 122
is clear that the same investigatfuon may be carried out for an
arbitrary fibered link in 8
3

fig.17
20
Constructing fibered knots in 3-manifolds
Stallings (49) has given three ways of constructing fibered knots
in the 3-sphere, We briefly describe sbme'conclusions of two of these
and give some further applications.
A The Twisting Construction. This is the main technique implicit in
the results of this paper. Stallings shows that the twisting of knots,
as described briefly in the first section, leads in special cases to
the construction of new fibered knots or links from old.
Specifically, and we quote
" Suppose F is a fiber surface for a fibered link L in S3, and that C is
an embedded circle on T, unknotted in S3 and with Ik(C, C+) =O. Then any
link L' obtained from L by twisting alongC+is fibered, with fiber T
Y
obtained from T by twli.stlng along C+. Moreover, the monodromy is that of
L composed with some number of Dehn twists along the circle C on T."
This is the technique used by Bonahon, Morton (37) and Stallings
(49) to construct examples of fibered knots with the same Alexander
polynomial or module.
Example: The knots S all arise from S , the square knot, by twist-
m 0
ing along the circle b. Thus they are all fibered knots. See fig.i.
Later in this paper we shall see how this phenomena may be
I
preted in a 4-dimensional context.
We shall refer to this construction as Stallings twists.
Another famous "twist" is the so-called "Lickorish twist", used by
Lickorish (33) to show that every closed orientable 3-manifold M
3
has
a framed link description - M
3
arises by removing some embedded solid
tori in S3 and replacing them by a twisted diffeomorphism of the boundary.
Wallace (55) has obtained the same decomposition via different methods.
For further details, we refer to Rolfsen and Kirby (30). The important
point we need is that we may assume that sucq a surgery
integraL.
We now put this in the context of Stallings' generalisation of a
technique due originally to Murasugi (38):
B Homogeneous Braids. Every link in SJ may be arranged by isotopy
as a closed braid on n strings, for some n. The latter may be described
by any of a number of open braids on n strings, each of which in turn
may be described by a word in the symbols t
1
, , t
n_1,
where t
i
denotes
a right handed crossing of the i
t h
strand over the i+1
st,
as we move up
-1
the page and with the strands numbered from left to rigfut. t. is then
1
a left handed crossing of the i+1
st
strand over the i
t h,
as in fig. 18:
\
-1
)
t . .:
\+1
t
i
:
J
1
i
fig.18
i+1
We use the convention that the braid is constructed from the word
by moving up the page as we read the word from left to right.
21
Example
fig.19
This is an example of a homogeneous braid - one for which every
occurrence of each t. is with the same sign.
1
22
Theorem (Stallings) Any link arising.as the closure of an open homo-
geneous braid in which every t. occurs at least once is a fibered link.
1
Moreover, the fiber surface is that arising from the closed braid by
applying SeifertUs algorithm.
An application:
Myers 09) and Gonzales-Acuna have proved that every closed orient-
able 3-manifold M
3
has a fibered knot. We will give a simple version of
a proof of this, based on homogeneous braids:
Theorem; 2.1 Every closed orientable 3-manifold has a fibered knot.
Proof: Take any integral framed link description for M
3,
and denote
by L the link in S3 on which we perform surgery to obtain M
3
Arrange L in S3 as a closed braid on n+1 strings, corresponding say
to the closure of the open braid corresponding to the word w on symbols
t., i =1, ... , n. Now introduce n unknotted and unlinked circles C.,
1 1
woven into the original braid as follows: Each C. runs once around the
1
braid between the i
t h
and i+1
st
strands, and every time we reach a
crossing, corresponding to the symbol t
i
or t ~ : we embed Cilocally as
fig.20:
-1
t. =
1
)
(
C.
1
fig.20
2)
fig.21
We apply this to the braid
fig.19 to obtain fig. 21 ;
Example;
... ,
In general, the braid corresponding to the word w on the t., i =1,
~
n becomes the braid corresponding to the word won symbols s.,
. J
j = 1, 0 0 00' 2n via the replacements
-1 s-1
t
i
--+ s2i-1 2i s2i-l
-1 -1
t
i
--+ s2i s2i-l s2i
The resulting braid is homogeneous, and it is easy to arrange that
for the original word w every t. occurs. It follows that the new braid
a
obtained is f'ibered. We
a knot;
connect the C. together as in f'ig.22 to obtain
" l J
f'ig.22
The fiber surface determines a framing of the normal bundle for
each of the knots K. making up our original link from the surgery des-
J
cription of JYP. If we do surgery on each K. corresponding to this framing
J
we can extend the fibration over the glued-in solid torus. Thus to obtain
a fibered knot in M
J,
we must ensure that we induce the right framings
by the fibration. By further twisting of the new component about the K.
J
as in fig.23, we can arrange that the introduced knot links each K. any
J
desired number of times. Thus all possible framings on the K. may be
J
induced by fiber surfaces, which completes the proof.
24
+1: -1 :
fig.23
c.
a
Myers has shown further that every closed orientable 3-manifold
" II
admits a simEle knot - one whose complement has a complete hyperbolic
structure. It is certainly true that every such M
J
has a fibered simple
knot, although no proof of this has a ~ p e a r e d . On the other hand, we can
easily conclude
Theorem; 2.2 Every closed orientable J-manifold has infinitely many
distinct fibered links whose complements are hyperRolic.
Proof: We observe that the links we constructed above are not only
homogeneous, but in fact alternating. Menasco (34) has shown that every
prime alternating link which is not a (2, q)-torus link has complement
admitting a complete hyperbolic structure, generalising the results of
Thurston (53) on the complements of the figure 8 knot and the Whitehead
link. As we may introduce arbitrarily many crossings by f.mrther twisting
of the introduced component, or by connect-summing with fibered hyper-
bolic knots in S3, it is clear that infinitely many different fibered
links may be obtained.
A Further
We observe the following phenomena:
Given a word w on symbols t. as above. there corresponds an open braid.
J.
wthus corresponds to an open alternating braid , to which we may assoc-
iate any invariants of the corresponding closed braid. In particular,
there is naturally associated the hyperbolic volume and the stretching
factor of the monodromy of the fibration. We will discuss this latter
concept in the next section. noting here that a fibration over S1 of
dimension 3 admits a complete hyperbolic structure if and only if the
monodromy is "pseudo-Anosov", from which the stretching factor may be
defined.
The volumes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds are at present difficult to
compute. The most succesful technique has been to employ decompositions
by ideal polyhedra, in particular tetrahedra, of open 3-manifolds with
I
cuspidal ends. Details may be found in Thurston (53), Menasco (34) and
Neumann and Zagier (41). For link complements in s3, no systematic
technique is known, except for links which are alternating. In Particul-
ar, there is at present no known procedure for determining a decomposit-
ion by ideal tetrahedra for bundles over S1.
The point of this discussion is that by the procedure given above
it is possible to generate many examples of knots and links which are on
25
the one hand alternating, and on the other fibered. From these examples
it may be possible to determine a relationship between imformation
derivable from the IJionodromy, and the hyperbolic volume. We see for exa
ample that if we start with the figure 8 knot, and carry out the iterat-
ive procedure w4 W4' W---7... etc. we obtain a sequence of determinable
monodromes as well as a geometric picture arising from the alternating
structure of the links.
It is difficult to discern any fundamental signifigance to the inf-
inite sequences of volumes arising from an arbitrary word under iterat-
ion. There are obviously infinitely many possible local modifications
we could have used instead of the simple one above, to convert an arb-
itrary braid into an alternating one.
It should also be remarked that we obtain different braids if we
freely reduce any given word. For example, if we start with the two
component unlink as a braid on two strings, described by the word t t:l,
1 1
we obtain the Borromeen r i n ~ s .
26
3 DIFFEOMORPHISMS OF SURFACES
To distinguish the knots we are going to construct, we need to
use some invariants arising in Thurston's description of diffeomorphisms
of closed orientable surfaces.
We motivate his results by considering a very special case, that
of the monodromy of the figure 8 knot. We saw this ariises from the
linear map on R
2
corresponding to the matrix [2 -1] This matrix is
symmetric, and thus there are two -i 1
orthogonal eigenvectors corresponding to the two reciprocal irrational
eigenvalues. If we uniformly foliate R
2
by lines parallel to the eigen-
vectors, we obtain a pair of transverse non-singular foliations of R
2
invariant under the diffeomorphism. If we assign a positive uniform
transverse measure to these foliations, we see that one is contracted
27
by v, the other expanded by l/v, where v
values. This is indicated in, fig. 2.5:
the smaller of the two eigen-
fig. 2.5
These invariant object!? project to the torus. Consider now the
diffeomorphism of the described by Dehn twists, and observe the
effect of assigni:t;l.g some positive weights a and to the circles of the
i-spine as in fig26. Notice if we modify the neighbourhood of the 0-
spine as in fig.27, we obtain its image may be smoothly collapsed back
onto the original. This gives the new weights 2a+b and a+b.
b
a
>
28
b a
fig. 26
b
::l
'--
,
fig.27
If we choose weights which correspond to largest eigenvalue of
the linear map (a, b) ... , -.-+. (2a + b , a + b), the resulting weighted
geometric object is'invarian'f' in some sense under the diffeomorphism,
up to scale. We notice now that the eigenvalue for this map and for the
2
measured foliation arising on T by projecting the invariant foliation
by geodesics on R
2
are in fact the same. We can now
definitions and Thurston's results.
more formal
,;I,
For an arbitrary closed orientable surface, Euler characteristic
considerations preclude the existence
foliations. Hence we allow k-prong
singularities, k) 3, as shown: fig.28
of non-singular codimension one
~ 1 ~ 6 J 1 ~ ~ ~
~ ~ r r ~
29
Definition: A measured :foliation m) on a closed sur:face F is a
:foliation "3- with isolated prong singularities, and an invariant trans-
verse measure m ( one :for which the measure assigned an arc transverse
to the foliation remains constant as we push the arc along a lea:f).
De:finition: A homeomorphism :f of the surface F is pseudo-Anosov if
there is a pair o:f transverse measured :foliations ('1-u, mu) and m
S
)
with the same singularities, and a real number a> 1 such that
:f(
u, m
U
) =('"' ", am
u
) ( s) ( ,-<s 1/ S)
;;r :t and :f ;:y, m = sr a.m.
Hence away :from the singularities the effect of f is locally
the same as happened for the invariant foliations :for the figure 8 mono-
:fig. 29
singularities we see the picture:
\
.
."
.. til"
.. .
",II'
.
.
on the torus. At the prong

'..
dromy
These ideas were introduced by Thurston (52, 5.3). A nice account of
the aspects of the theory we need is given in Bonahon ( 7), and more
sUbstantial treatments can be :found in Fathi, Laudenbach and Poenaru
(15) and in Cassonvs lecture
De:finition: The :factor :for a pseudo-Anosov map f is the
unique largest number a satisfying the conditions above.
Theorem: (Thurston)3.l The stretching factor for a pseudo-Anosov map is
an invariant of the conjugacy and isotopy class of the map.
The signifigance of this result is enhanced by the more remarkable
theorem, also proved by Thurston, which completely classifies di:ffeo.,...
morphisms of closed orientable surfaces:
30
Given a diffeomorphism f of the closed orientable
surface F, one of the following is
t.) f is isotopic to a periodic diffeomorphism f'
ii) f is topologically isotopic to a pseudo-Anosov diffeomorphism f'
iii) f is reducible, ie. there is a collection of disjoint embedded
homotopically non-trivial circles C
i
' i = 1, , n such that the rest""
riction of f to the components of F cut along the C
i
is of type i) or ii).
Case ii) excludes i) and iii), and in this case ft is unique up to
conjugation by a diffeomorphism isotopic to the identity.
We saw that for the figure 8 knot, the stretching factor also arose
when we considered an invariant-up-to-scale weighted "train track".
Definition: A train track on a surface F is an embedded graph such that
i) at every vertex, all edges are parallel - fig. 30
ii) there are at least 3 edges at each vertex - fig.J1
iii) no vertex is a cusp -
iV) every contractible component of the complement has at least 3
horns .J3
v) no component of the complement is an annulus with smooth boundary.
Given a train track, there are many ways in which a positive measure
,
may be assigned to each edge so that the sum of the weights entering a
fig.30 fig.34
vertex from one side equals the sum on the other side tl'ig'34)
L 'f: '< b
8

fig.35
31
For the figure 8 knot, the invariant foliation arose :from a :folia-
tion o:f the universal cover R
2
by invariant geodesics. For sur:faces of
2
genus greater than one, the universal cover may be taken to be H , hyper-
bolic Z-space, since all such surfaces admit metrics of constant curva*
ture -1. A li:ft of the di:ffeomorphism f to HZ extends to a continuous
map on the closed disc, with :fixed points on the sphere at ro, 8
1
Pairs
ro
of distinct points in 8
1
determine geodesics in HZ, and thus there is
ro
a set of invariant geodesics under the lift o:f the map. After isotopy,
we obtain under projection to F a map fV which preserves a set of embed-
ded geodesics on F. We call such an object an invariant geodesic lamin-
ation on F, and there is naturally associated, as was the case of the
J..-'-i",UJ..I:J 8 knot, two transverse measured foliations.
If' we take a suf':ficiently small ~ ~ neighbourhood of the lamination,
we see an object that appears as a thickened train track. The train
track we seek is obtained from this by smoothly squeezing it down onto
its 1-spine, as in the f'ollowing :figure:
32
The invariance of the lamination implies, as with the figure 8 knot,
that the image of the train track under ft may be isotoped into the -
neighbourhood of the lamination in such a way that it smoothlyyollapses
back onto the original. It is easy to arrange that the vertices are sent
to vertices, in which case each edge of the train track is wrapped around
every other edge with some non-negative multiplicity. We will shortly
illustrate this by examples of subsequent relevance. Label the edges by
e
i,
and let r
i j
be the number of times the edge fl(e
i)
runs around the
edge e. after collapsing.
J
The natural correspondence between the geodesic lamination and meas-
ured foliation leads to the natural assignment of a weight to each edge
of the train track. Given the weight w. assigned to the edge e., the map
1 1
f' induces via the matrix R = (r..) a linear transformation of the weight
lJ
vector w = (Wi)' defined by f; (r!) =Rr! This has already been ill-
ustrated for the figure 8 knot. The result we observed there generalises:
Theorem: J.3 When f is pseudo-Anosov, the stretching factor is the unique
largest eigenvalue of R, if R
n
is positive for some n.
This is discussed in more detail in Bonahon ts paper ( ?). We make
no attempt to provide details, but employ the technique as way of illus-
tration. The difficulty lies in general in determining an invariant train
track.
Examples: Pseudo-Anosov maps obtained by isotopy in S3
We will show that a diffeomorphism of pseudo-Anosov type can be
constructed by ambient isotopy in S3 of a closed, orientable surface.
The examples arise from the fibration of the figure 8 knot complement, '
since as starting point we take the diffeomorphism of fig.1?, redrawn
here with an additional "waist" curve for the solidhandlebody.
TheoremlltJ-
33
It is clear that we may Iftwisttf the handlebody about the waist cir-
cle Wby ambient isotopy in 8
3
to induce on the boundary F a dif'feomor-
phism corresponding to a Dehn twist t
w
about W. Hence by composing with
the induced map :from the figure 8 monodromy we obtain the maps f , where
n
n -1 -1
f =t
w
t
g
t
c
to t
c
n 1 122
There exist inf'initely many distinct diffeomorphisms of
a genus 2 closed orientable surface which are pseudo-Anosov and obtained
by ambient isotopy of the standardly embedded surface ,in 8
3
.
Corollary3. 5 8
3
has a Heegard decomposition with pseudo-Anosov glueing
map.
This is reminiscent of the result of Fathi and Laudenbach (14),
who show that there is a non-contractible loop in the space of' Heegard
splittings of #k82 X 8
1
for every k) 2.
I
proof of' Theorem: We only have to prove that the maps f' , for n ~ 1,
n
are isotopic to pseudo-Anosov maps. We will do this by constructing an
invariant train track, from which we then extract the stretching factors
.(i,
to show the f are distinct.
n
F:tmn,;the description of' f in terms of Dehn twists we observe that
n
the circles on which we twist right are mutually disjoint, as is the case
for those on which we twist lef't. This has a fortunate consequence:
Suppose we are of homotopi.cally non-trivial
embedded circles on a surface F, which fall into two classes, the mem-
34
bers of each of which are mutually disjoint. If the complement of all the
circles on F is a collection of discs, many pseudo-Anosov maps may be
constructed by assigning + to the members of one class and - to the
-/
members of the other. Any diffeomorphism obtained by Dehn twisting along
all of the circles, in any order, is pseudo-Anosov provided we always
twist according to the assigned sign. This result is due to Bob Penner
(43), and is a generalisation of a technique found in (15). The proof is
constructive - the circumstances allow the direct construction of an
invariant train track.
We demonstrate the technique for the maps f , which satisfy the
n
condition above when n is positive. Note that we have already seen an
example - when we constructed the train track for the figure 8 monodromy.
In fig.)6 we show how to modify the intersections of the circles on
F to obtain a candidate for the train track we seek.
r, +
I
fig.36
This results in the following object on F:
fig.3?
36
After further collapsing we obtain fig.38 with edges labelled 1, ..
00,12. Assigning weights consistently requires the satisfaction of comp-
atibility conditions at each of the vertices, and thus the total weight
system is determined by the weights assigned to a proper subset of the
edges, a fact that emerges naturally as we try to determine the stretch-
ing factor. This is discussed in more detail in Bonahon ( 7 ).
fig.38
The beauty of the diffeomorphisms in Penner's class is that the
trMn track constructed is invariant under each of the consecutive Dehn
twists. To see this, we isotope all of the twisting circles into a neigh-
bourhood of the train track, as in the following figure 40.
If for example we twist along the circle C
2'
the image of the train
track naturally collapses back onto the original:
fig.39
37
Hence to see the automorphism of the weights, we do not need to see
the image of the train track under the entire diffeomorphism. Instead,
we compute the effect for each Dehn twist, and obtain the final result
38
by composition. All of the necessary imf'ormation contained in the way
the twisting circles lie in the neighbourhhod of the train track, and
can be encoded in the following table:
Wraps Intersects
C
2
e
7
e
9
2
e
9
e
5
e
1
e
2
e
10e4
e
1
e
3
C e
8
e
1
e
4
e
3
1
e
11
e
5
e
1
e
2
C
e6 e
8 1
W e
1e
5e
12e4
e
11
e
11
e12e10e6e2e1
This records the edges we travel along as we go along any given
circle9 and the edges we cross transversely as we do so. If we twist
around a given circle, and collapse back the image of the train track,
the weights assigned to the edges intersected by the circle are added
to the edges along which the circle wraps. The resulting linear map for
f acting on the weights is
n
where each of the matrices R* is the induced map on weights determined
by the Dehn twist on C*. We have given the results explicitly, in the
most convenient fashion for matrix multiplication:
J 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0
1 200 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
111 001 0 001 1 1 001 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 000
1 1 001 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 000 0 1 0 000 0 0 0
000 0 0 1 000 0 0 0 000 001 0 0 0 0 0 0
RzR2= 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 O o 00o 0i o 6b10
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
1 1 0 0 0 1 001 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 010
1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 021.1 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
000 0 0 000 001 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 010
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
J 0 1 0 001 001 1 1 J 2 0 002 0 0 0 222
111 00 0 1 001 1 1 1 2 0 001 0 0 0 1 1 1
102 0 001 001 1 1 111 001 0 0 011 1
101 1 001 001 1 1 1 101 0 1 0 0 011 1
1010101 001 1 1 1 1 001 1 0 0 0 1 1 1
o 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 001 0 0 0 000
R R-R :=
122 0 000 001 000 0 0 000 0 0 0 1 0 0 010
101 0 0 011 0 1 1 1 000 0 0 001 0 000
o 0 0 0 0 0 001 000 1 1 0 0 0 1 001 121
o 0 0 0 0 000 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 001 0 0 021 1
101 0 001 001 2 1 000 000 0 0 0 0 1 0
o 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 1 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
I
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 q 0 0 1 8 1 0 0 8 1 0 0 9 10 9
o 1 0 0 000 0 0 000 661 0 051 006 7 6
001 000 0 0 0 0 0 Q 652 0 051 006 7 6
o 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 000 651 1 051 006 7 6
o 0 0 0 1 000 0 000 651 0 1 5 1 006 6 6
o 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
R
rR1R2R2
=
o 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O ~ O 1 0 0 0 1 0
00000 001 0 1 0 0 541 004 1 105 6 5
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 000 1 1 0 0 0 1 001 1 1 1
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 002 1 1
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 010 541 0 051 005 7 5
o 000 0 0 0 0 0 001 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
39
J
'"
40
n+1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
orro.o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
001 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
n 0 0 1 000 0 0 0 0 n
n 0 0 0 1 0 0 000 0 n
pIlp-R R-R =0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 2 2 ,0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
000 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 000
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 001 0 0
o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 010
n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n+1
1 8 1 0 0 8 1 0 0 9 10 9
661 005 1 006 7 6
652 0 051 006 7 6
651 1 051 006 7 6
6510151 0 0 6 6
1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 1 1
o 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
__ ._ -,-" . _. ,.. ._, .", ""--'''''-'."'"'r""
5 4 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 5 6 5
1 1 0 0 0 1 ,0 0 1 1 2 1
1 1 0 0 0 1 0 002 1 1
5 4 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 5 7 5'
000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
o 0 8n n
+8 +1
W't! t (1,
9n e #
+9
6
6
o
o 9n 10n
+9 +10
6 7
6 7 o
o 9n 10n 9n
+6 +7 +6
o 9n 10n 9n
+6 +6 +6
021 1
o 0 67 0

o 5 6 5
1 121
q f ,1 ",{le""----
o 9n 10n 10i:!+1
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
1
o
o
\
o
o
o
1
o
o
I
n
1
1
5
5
o
o
o
o
o 8n n
+5 +1
1 8n n
+5 +1
002
001
004
001
0,_ 0) 1"
o 0 8n
o
1
11n 8n n
+11 +8 +1
661
652
l1n 8n n
+6 +5 +1
11n 8n n
+6 +5 +1
110
000
541
1 1 0
1 1 0
t)
Ll.n 8n n
=A =
n
/
Any weightings wi for the edges e
i
are subJect to the relations
Wi = w
3
+ w5 w
9
-:I- w
l1
= w
3
+ w
7
w4 t w6 = w
8
+ w
10
+ w
12
These determine a subspace of R
12
which intersects the positive
" d til R
12
.
qua ran + ln a subset E. E is thus invariant under the action of An.
41
Observe now that our train track t is "minimal" in the sense that
we cannot remove any edges and still have a train track invariant under
f This is because given any edge e., there is some other edge which is
n 1
wrapped around it by f , which may easily be, seen by referring to the
n
table of wrappings and intersections. Furthermore, our train track t
satisfies each component of F - t is a disc with three "horns
n
The
following is taken directly from Bonahonus Theorem 4.3 and note added
in proof:
Theorem: 3.6 Let f be a diffeomorphism of the cillosed surface F admitt-
ing a; minimal train track t such that each component of F - t is a disc
with three horns, and let A denote the matrix of the induced linear map
on E, the space of allowable weights. Then f is topologically isotopic
to a pseudo-Anosov diffeomorphism f' if and only ifAX::j X for every
non-trivial X in E. If so, moreover, the stretching factor a of f' is
the unique eigenvalue of A that admits an eigenvector X in E.
a
Remark: The weighting of t corresponding to X
a
is projectively that
induced from the invariant transverse measured foliations on F. NeceSB-
-Lty of the requirement that t be minimal follows immediately from
our examples f ; t is invariant even for n =0, in which case the diffeo-
n
morphism is reducible, with reducing circle the figure S knot on the
boundary of the handlebody. On the other hand
Proposition: 3.7 If n ~ I , A X = X for some X in E has only the trivial
n
so'Iutd.on c-Lhus f is peeudo-Anoeov ,
n
Proof: From the first row of A we see that A X =X =(Wi) requires
n n
all Wi zero except perhaps w
4
' w
5
' w
s
' or w
9
Hence X is 0 or does not
lie in E, as follows from the vertex relations; eg 0 =Wi =W
z
+ w4
42
necessitates w4 =0, and similarly for w5' ws and w
9
.
We see in fact that any non-zero vector in E has every Wi , O.
Proposition: 3.8
fnnction of n.
The stretching factor a is a strictly increasing
n
Proof: For matrices with non-negative entries, the theory of Perron-
Frobenius shows that the eigenvalue we seek is given by (4)
an = sup f vi Y in E, AnY ~ v Y J
where, by AnY ~ v Y we mean each entry of AnY is greater than or equal to
the corresponding entry of vY. The entries of A Y are either constants
n
or polynomials in n, for fixed Y. However, if we iterate three times, we
find that every entry of AJy involves n. Hence we apply the characteris-
n
ation of a
3
as given above: the entries of AJy are strictly increasing
n n
fnnctions of n, and so if A
3
y ~ vY, A
3
+
1
Y '> AJy ~ vY, showing that the
n n n
a are strictly increasing with n, and we conclude finally that the
n
diffeomorphisms f are mutually non-conjugate and non-isotopic.
n
43
4 SLICE KNDrS AND RIBBONS
When Quach and Weber rediscovered the knotsS in fig.l, they made
m
the additional observation that they are all ribbon knot.s ,
Definition: A knot K
n
in Sn+2 is ribbon if it bounds an immersed
n+l-ball B
n
+
l
all of whose self-intersections are transverse double
points, the connected components of which are embedded copies of B
n

The preimage of each such B

n
is two copies , one of which is properly
embedded in B
n
+
l
, the other lying entirely in the interior.
Fig.l provides a configuration in which the immersed discs are app-
arant. We will shortly see that the knots K are also ribbon, a fact
m,m
the reader may easily discern directly"
The interest in ribbon knots is that they are the boundaries of
particularly nicely properly embedded balls in B
n
+
3
, To see thfus, merely
push the self-intersections of the immersed B
n
+
l
into a collar of Sn+2
in B
n
+
3
, and use general position, Ribbon knots are the nicest examples
of slice knots:
Definition; A knot K
n
is slice if the pair (Sn+2, K
n
) is the boundary
of some disc pair (B
n
+
3
, B
n
+
l
) .
In even dimensions, every knot is slice, though not all such are
ribbon. In odd dimensions, an obstruction for a knot to be slice arises
from the Seifert form:
JDef'furr::kbion: K
n
is an algebraically slice knot if it has a Seifert
form S-equivalent to one of form
A necessary condition for a knot to be slice is that it is a l g e b ~
raically slice.
In higher odd dimensions, Levine (31) has proved the remarkable
Theorem: 4.1 A knot K
2n-1
in S2n+1 is slice if and only if it is algeb-
raically slice,. , for n ~ 2 and K
2n-1
simple.
Returning to the classiealdimension, it is a lorgstanding conject-
ure that a knot is .slice if and only if it is ribbon. Casson and Gordon
have made two signifigant contributions to this problem. On the one hand
(11), they have introduced invariants whose vanishing is necessary for
a knot to be ribbon, although the possibility of the knot nonetheless
being slice is not ruled out. These are finer obstructions than the
algebraically slice condition, but we shall not have cause to calculate
them here. The obstructions for our examples will vanish, as they are in
fact all going to be ribbon.
Their other contribution (58) has as starting point the observation
that ribbon knots enjoy a nice property: there is a surjection of the
fundamental group of the knot complement onto that of the ribbon compl-
ement in the ball. The latter complement having a handle decomposition
with handles of index &2, as may easily be seen by looking at the crit-
ical points of the embedded ribbon in the collar of Sn+2.
44
ball v
n
+
3
if it bounds
Definition: A knot K
n
. Sn+2. h t . bbon ti h 1
In lS omo ow rl on In some omo ogy
1
Rn+1 t t t t .
a s lce such ha he na ural incluSlon
TI (Sn+2 - K)
,
is a surjection.
Casson and Gordon (58) then prove
Theorem:4.2 A fibered knot in a homology 3-sphere is homotopy ribbon
if and only if the capped off monodromy extends over a handlebody.
Thus in particular, a necessary condition for a fibered knot to be
ribbon is that its monodromy be null-cobordant (ie it must extend over
some orientable .3-manifold). In his thesis, Bonahon ( 6) calculated the
oriented cobordism group of diffeomorphisms of closed orientable surfaces
and in (7 ), he applied this to produce infinitely many examples of
fibered knots in S.3 which are not ribbon, but which nonetheless have the
same algebraically .slice Seifert form.
On the other hand, the knots K of fig.2 all have the same Alex-
n,n
ander module, and thus the same abelian invariants. That these are dis-
tinct is proved in Kanenobe (26).
We will now show how to construct the knots of figs. 1 and 2, and
in so doing prove the stronger statement than that implied by Casson and
Gordon's work, namely tha.t the complement in B
4
of the ribbons they
bound f'Lber-eoven thEIj3iele with fiber a genus two handlebody. Casson
and Gordon's work shows that this property is satisfied in some homotopy
4-ball, but until the Poincare conjecture is settled in the smooth catB
egory we may not conclude that our result is universally true.
We should remark at this stage that the only class of fibered ribbon
knots previously known to the author are the knots Sm' the 8
9
knot and
other related examples arising from the analysis in Akbulut and Kirby
(2 ) and Aitchisonand Rubinstein (1 ) of the homotopy 4-spheres const-
ructed by Cappell and Shaneson (8 ,9 ). In fact, the technique for
constructing such knots there leads to the construction of Sand K
m m,n
.5 CONSTRUCTING MAPPING TORI
We will show how the various knots Sand K arise, by reversing
m m,n
the following observation: IfK is a fibered ribbon knot in S3, bounding
a ribbon R in B
4
such that B
4
- R fibers, over the circle with fiber a
4
handlebody, we can reconstruct B by first explicitly constructing the
mapping torus M
f
of the diffeomorphism f corresponding to the fibration,
and then adding a 2-handle to kill off the S1 factor, corresponding to
glueing the ribbon back into the ball.
If we were to use an arbitrary diffeomorphism of a handlebody, we
of course do not in general expect to obtain the 4-ballo On the other
hand, we will now show that the diffeomorphisms of the genus two handle-
body constructed in section 2 all lead to B4.:
The following technique was first used by Akbulut and Kirby ( 2),
generalised by Montesinos (3.5) and also used in Aitchison and Rubinstein.
46
For the diffeomorphism f: #s S1 X D
2
- - ~ > #s S1 X D
2,
struct the mapping torus in stages. Denote # S1 X D
2
by H
s s
we con-o..
fig.41
1. Since M
f
arises by identifying the ends of H
s
X I by f, we may
isotope f so that it restricts to the identity in a neighbourhood N of
some point p on the boundary. As O-spine forH we take some other point
s
q in the interior of N. A 1-spine for H is then an embedded bouquet of
s
circles with common point q, each circle intersecting H - N in an arc
s
li running once around one of the handles
as in fig/a. We will need to
of the annuli A., as shown, under fo
1
Note: 1. lies on A..
1 1
47
This gives a handle decomposition for H
s
with a O-handle and s 1-
handles b., i =1, , s , Taking H X I with induced handle decomposition
1 . . .. . .
we obtain M
f
by identifying H X r - 1 ~ w i t h H X {1} via f:
s s
2. Identify N Xf-1} with N X (11 by adding a 1-handle b*. The ends of
the arcs 1. Xf-1} may be identified with their images under f by pairs of
1
arcs running over the 1-handle b*, and taking the union of these, the
Ii Xf-1\ and their images in H
s
X f q we obtain a disjoint set of embed-
ded circles a
i
The mapping torus construction is completed by adding di,
s 2-handles with attaching circles the a., and with framings determined
1
by the A. and their images. The situation is depicted in fig.l42..
1

~
~
:

:
:

.'
f
I

.
.
..
.- ..
-..
....
..
..
..... ' ....
", ...
... ..
..... "-
-. \;
,
'10
..
,
..

,
,
,

,
I
,

,
..

..'
"-, .....
....... ,...

t
.
....
~ ..
..... .. . ..
'... . ...
H X I
s
fig.42
48
We wish to apply this to the diffeomorphisms f Hence we need to
n
"coordinatise" our description:
For O-handle, take B
4
viewed as B
3
X 1. The boundary 3-sphere thus
naturally inherits a structure as the union of the two 3-balls B
3
X[-1 ~
and B
3
X f 1 ~ , and the S2 X I running between them.. It is convenient ttl:>
take S3 as R
3
U 00 , with B
3
X f 1T the unit ball, and B
3
Xf-1} the exte
erior of say the ball of radius 2.
.
.
.
.
.
.
'e
.
k
.f'
". -".. .. ..
... ' -, " ...-.
-, .. ....n. 11'"
.... . ..
"Ill .. ..-
... .. ,... .. ..
'6
2
,
,
.
..d
b
e. ,tI_
. .
.. '. 1If.
. ..._ .. ....Il..
..... ..-.- .. -...'.
... .... .., -..
... ,: q X (1l \. \
.. J .. ..
/ .
b ~ Pi O b ~
fig.43
As f
n
is a diffeomorphism of H
2
' H
g
X I in th.is case has 2 1-hand-
les b
1
and b
2,
thickened from a
1
and a
2
These are attached to the unit
ball, serving as O-handle for H
2,
with a
1
Us ends at the "East
ll
and "West"
poles, and a
2
to the North and South. Thus in our model for H
2
X I the
ends of b
1
and b
2
are attached to th3-balls in the neighbourhoods of
the "po'Lea" and poles, as in fig. 43:
We have also drawn in the attaching balls for the 1-handle b*o
For the moment, we consider only the case n = O. In this case, we have
a very convenient picture for the construction. The diffeomorphismmf
O
is exactly the figure 8 knot monodromy, thickened. Hence the attaching
circles a
1
and a
Z
appear as in fig.44. The reader may wish to refer to
fig.16. Another consequence is that the framings are untwisted, being
determined by annuli lying in the planes of the representation, for the
identification by adding the Z-handles d
1
and d
Z
along a
1
anda
Z'
fig.44
Inside M
f
we see a neighbourhood D
Z
X S1 of the circle p X
o
This appears as a neighbourhood of the arc z in the figure. We are going
to attach another Z-handle d* along this circle, and show that the result
is B
4
Firstly, we slide the Z-handles d
1
and d
Z
off b* using d*, and then
cancel these latter handles The result is It will be convenient
to keep track of the genus Z surface which appears as the boundary of the
unit ball, surgered by tubes running over b
1
and b
Z'
If we remove a disc
neighbourhood of the point p we obtain a punctured surface, with the knot
K
O
its boundary. When we finally arrive at the trivial handle decompos4
ition for B
4,
K
O
will appear as .a knot. We will see that the image of W
under the cancelling of handles remains unchanged.
fig.45
In fig.46 , we have isotoped K
O
over b
1
so that the 2-handle d
1
can
be isotoped to reduce the number of times it runs over b
1
geometrically
to one.
fig.46
50
Now slide d
1
off b
1
using d
2,
and cancel b
1
with d
2
to obtain fig.
47- We must also slide K
O
as indicated. After further isotopy, it is
clear thatb
2
is cancelled by d
1,
but in doing so, K
O
must be isotoped
also. We finally obtain B
4,
in the boundary of which we see K
O
and W,
as well as the Seifert surface for K
O
on which Wlies. We have also lab-
elled two other unknotted circles ~ and Q
2
which lie on the surface.
51
fig.47
fig.48
:fig50
fig.51
fig.49
52
53
In fig.51 we isotopecthe knot K
O
to a more recognisable form - we
obtain figure 8 # -figure 8. Furthermore, the circles Q
1
and Q
2
satisfy
the conditions of Stallings, and so twisting on each of them we obtain
the knots K of Kanenobe ,
m,n
That K
O
is a fibered knot may be deduced from the construction.
Let f be the restriction of f to ~ H 2 ' Thus aMf is the mapping torus M
f
,
1 0
a genus 2 surface bundle over S Adding the 2-handle ~ * has the effect
of surgering M
f
along the circle swept out by p, and thus S3 is obtain-
2 1 1 2
ed by removing D X S and replacing by S X D Hence K
O
is isotopic to
S1 X toh proving that the complement of KOfibers.
A similar conclusion holds whenever we obtain B
4
by adding a 2-han-
d.Le to H X S1, for any diffeomorphism g: H ---J)o H fixing a neighbour-
s g s s
hood of a point p on ~ H s ' along the circle swept out by p. The boundary
K of a disc neighbourhood of p on ~ H will always be a fibered ribbon
s
knot in S3, bounding a ribbon R.
Suppose now that Cis an embedded circle on aH ,bounding a disc
s
appears unknotted in S3= D in H , and that after handle cancellation C
s
d(M U d*) as constructed above.
g
Proposition:5.1 Any knot K' obtained from K by twisting along C isa
genus 2 fibered ribbon knot, bounding a ribbon R
V
whOse complement in B
4
fibers over 8
1
with fiber H
s
Proof; Let g* be any diffeomorphism of H obtained from g by follow-
s
ing with a cut along D, twisting a number of times and reglueing. We
claim this is the monodromy of B
4
- Rv, for some ribbon R
V
To see this,
observe that C in S3 bounds D in H c.. M c: B
4
. (We can in fact "see" this
s g
disc in the representation of the mapping torus construction).
Twisting along C changes the mondromy of K by a number of Dehn twists
along C on the fiber surface. Considered as 3H , this can be achieved
s
by cutting along D and twisting the handlebody. Hence in the 4-dimens-
ional perspective, a neighbourhood of the disc D in B
4
is a 2-handle
attached to the complementc the twisting is achieved by removing this
2-handle and replacing it with a new 2-handle with the same attaching
circle but with different framing. We are "blowing down" the ribbon D
Hence R' is exactly R, twisted along C. This is because the pair
K, C bounds a ribbon link arising naturally from the construction of the
mapping torus - in our initial handlebody picture for M Ud* both Rand
g
D appear as "ribbon" discs, and under isotopy and handle sliding, only
ribbon intersections are introduced. Twisting along C thus twists R to
v
a ribbon R
Applying this to the cases above, w.e have
Theorem: 5.2 The knots K of Kanenobe are genus 2 fibered ribbon knots
m,n
which bound ribbons R such that B
4
- R fibers over the circle with
m,n m,n
fiber the ~ e n u s 2 handlebody.
Proof; It is clear that the circles Q1and Q
2
satisfy the conditions
of the discussion above.
Now observe we may do the same -t-lith W. In this case, denoting the
knot obtained by twisting n times by K , we see that the monodromy for
n
K is exactly f , and hence the K
n
are all distinct for nz O. Moreover
n n I'
Wand K
O
form a boundary link,and so all of the1<:n have the same Seif""
ert form.
Summarising, we obtain
Theorem: 5.3 There exist infinitely many distinct knots K in SJ such
n
55
that i) K is fibered, of genus 2
n
ii) K is ribbon, bounding a ribbon R in B
4
n n
iii) B
4
- R fibers over S1 with fiber a handlebody
n
iV) SJ - K has pseudo-Anosov monodromy, and thus admits a com-
n
plete Riemannian metric of constant curvature -1
v) the Seifert form of K is independent of n, and thus the K
n n
cannot be distinguished by abelian invariants.
Remark: We of course expect that the knots K also have pseudo-Anosov
m,n
monodromy, but we have not carried out a thorough investigation, as the
monodromy is not obviously of Penner type. On the other hand, ~ v e r y diff-
eomorphism of a genus 2 surface commutes with the hypoelliptic involution
and so the kind of train track analysis used by Bonahon (7 ) can be app-
lied.
The Trefoil: We carry out the same construction for the monodromy of
H
2
arising from the trefoil. The only difference is the attaching circles
for d
1
and d
2
are now determined by fig.10, and so we obtain the diagrams
in fig.52. As above , we slide and cancel handles in the obvious fashion
to obtain B
4,
in which we see So = trefoil # -trefoil and its genus 2
Seifert surface, as in fig.53
In this case, however, we see that the circles Q
1
and Q
2
are in fact
isotopic, and thus by twisting we only obtain a 1-parameter family of
knots Sm' ;I'hese are exactly the knots of Stallings, Quach and Weber, and
so we have proved
Theorem:.s4.The knots S bound ribbons in B
4
whose complements fiber over
m
S1 with fiber a genus 2 handlebody.
fig.52
56
57
fig. 53
58
6 DOUBLY SLICE KNQrS
n n+2 n+)
Suppose K is a slice knot in S ,bounding a ribbon R in B
If we double the pair (B
n
+) , R) we obtain a new knot DR in sn+) , which
intersects the equatorial Sn+2 in the original knot Kn.K
n
is thus a
symmetric slic.e of the knot DR. Usually DR will be non-trivial in Sn+).
A natural question is then "Which knots K
n
arise as slices of an un-
knotted Sn+1i A' Sn+)?" Of course, in this situation we do not expect the
slice to be symmetric.
Definition: A knot K
n
in Sn+2 is doubly slice if it is the intersect-
. . Sn+) n+1
lon ln of the equatorial n+2-sphere with an unknotted S
In the classical dimension, the first non-trivial example is due
to (unpublished), who showed that the square knot So is doubly
slice. We will give a proof below. Techniques for recognising certain
doubly slice knots in the classical dimension were given by Hosokawa (25)
but the most signifigant breakthrough came via the work of Zeeman on
twist-spinning knots (56), who .showed that for any knot K
n,
Kn#_K
n
is
doubly slice. Hence both So and K
o
are doub.ly slice.
The square knot is fibered, but non-prime, and the only doubly slice
prime knot with less than 10 crossings is 9
46
, as shown by Sumners (51).
This is not fibered. We will give infinitely many examples of prime,
fibered doubly slice knots in the classical dimension, all of genus 2.
The condition of being doubly slice places algebraic restrictions
on the possible forms of the Seifert form for such a knot.
Definition: A knot is algebraically doubly slice if it admits a Sei-
fert form of form
[: :1
with A and B square.
In higher odd dimensions, a simple algebraically dOUbly sl:lceknot
is doubly slice, but unlike the case of slice knots, there are .addit-
ional obstructions when the knot is either non-simple or even d:lmension-
al. These additional conditions arise from obstructions in codimens:i:on 1
embedding phenomena. We wfull observe a further manifestation of this
shortly. The interested reader may refer to the work of Sumners (51),
Kearton (28), Stolzfus (50), Hitt (59), Ruberman (47) and Levine (32)
for more details in the general higher dimensfuonal case.
We noted earlier that it is in general unknown how to recover the
Seifert form, given the monodromy on H* for a fibered simple knot. We
will show there is a solution when the knot is doubly slice:
Proposition:6.1 The monodromy Mfor a fibered simple doubly slice knot
K in S2n+1 determines the Seifert form.
59
Proof: Since K is doubly slice, it admits a unimodular form (from the
Consequently, we may conjugate:
fibration)
ible.
[: Jlnimodularity that both A and B are invert,
[
I AJ.(1 t Fo AB"1.
OElE a.OEtJ lr 0
to find an equivalent form. Up to sign,

the monodromy is given by
{B':A
t

. .
Hence if we are given the monodromy of such a knot, we know it is
and to this we may associate the
Given another possibility for M, such as
similar to one of form
Seifert form r: :]
0_. t].
!it
rp 0, ],
Lo P t
we mU'st show
60
the Seifert forms are equivalent; Since the two matrix representations
for the monodromy are we can find X,Y, Z and Wsuch tha.t
Remark: If we assume that the knot is only fibered, slice and simple,
we may take a Seifert form of form
invertible. As above,
for C arbitrary, and A, B
F
t-FE:-1
J.
-1
E
= M
corresponding monodromy is
I. ]f
o
I] =[ .E
t
E 1 0 LEt F
t
0
The
Hence if D is a solution of
the Seifert forms
dromy.
and give rise to the same mono-
Examples: If we take E= [f i]
find that the map
as arises with the figure 8 knot, we
is an isomorphism of the space of2X2 matrices. On the other hand, for
In this case, direct calculation shows that the Alexander
the trefoil, the matrix E = .[1 -11 in (*) has the non-trivial solution
10j
modules arising from the Seifert matrices
are isomorphic.
[: :J and [: :J
In the classical dimension, this analysis shows that the only poss-
ible S-equivalence classes for fibered genus 2 doubly slice knots are
realised by the knots Sand K We will give a proof that they are in
o 0
fact doubly slice;
Theorem (Zeeman); 6.2If K is a fibered knot, thenK#-K is doubly slice.
61
Proof; Let F be the fiber Seifert manifold, and take a small ball
n+2
neighbourhood B of a point p on the knot, invariant under the fibrat-
ion. We obtain a ball pair (B
n
+
2
, Lf") by removing this invariant ball,
where A. n = K - nhdj p}, This ball pair fibers over S1 with fiber F = F,
as in fig.54:
K
fig. 54
n+2
Denote the monodromy by f. Now take B X I, in which we see a
slice disc lin X I, whose boundary in a(B
n
+
2
X I) = Sn+2 is K # -K.
The complement of this slice R in B
n+2
X I fibers over S1 with fiber
F X I and monodromy f X ide Thus K # -K is a fibered slice knot.
~ ] ~ 2 1
The fibration of B - R may be embedded in B X S
n+2 n+2 - 'n+2
Take B C S , thickenF inside B , to obtain F Y, and push F
Y
around the fibration as we go around the S1 factor of B
n+2
X S1.
w2 1 ~ 1 2 ~ ]
Now glue together B X Sand S X D to obtain S We do
.. n+1 2 Qtn+1 2 n+1 2
this in two stages, first spllttlng S X D as P+ X DUD X D ,
n+1 1: n+2 1 -n+1 2
and adding D+ X D as a 2-handle attached to B X S along D+ X D ,
-n+1 '" .,. n+2 n+] I n+1 2 n+]
where D+ = FYI I \JB 0 This gives B ,and adding D_ X D gives S
It is clear that OB
n
+
2
is unknotted in Sn+], and intersects OB
n
+]
in 0:5;+1. But this is just ?}B
n+
3=
o(F v X
f Xi d
S1 U D;+1 X D
2)
=
Thus K # -K is doubly slice.
n+2
S viewed as
62
From this we also observe that not only is K # -K doubly slice, but
that it is trivially the double of the ball pair (B
n+2
, ..6.
n).
We quote a
result of Levine (32):
Theorem: 6.3 For n= 1, 2 there exists a doubly slice knot which is not
the double of a ball pair.
In the classical dimension, a double of a ball pair is merely a
connect sum, and so 9
4
6 is an appropriate example. We prove
Theorem: 6.4 There exist infinitely many prime, fibered doubly slice
knots in S3. In particular, K is doubly slice for all n.
n
Proof; The proof of the special case of Zeemanus theorem given above
involves in the classical dimension an isotopy of a thickened Seifert
surface - a handlebody - in S3. This argument works equally well when
we allow twisting of the handlebody in addition to that induced by push-
ing around the fibration, In other words, if f: H --=lloH is a diffeomor-
s s
phism obtained by isotopy in S3, we see H
s
X
f
S1 embedded in S3 X S1,
and surgering the latter to obtain 8
4
has the effect of adding a 2-hand-
Definition:
,
When a doubly slice knot arises via this isotopy construct-
ion, we say it has been constructed by isotopY.
The knots K
n
are obtained from K
o
by twisting along W. On the other
hand, we will now show there are many alternative circles along which we
may twist without effecting the Seifert form.
63
Algebraically doubly slice prime fibered ribbon knots in S3 of genus 2.:
Examples: We will show how to construct what appear to be zillions
of distinct knots satisfying the above title, The twisting technique has
in the past relied on ad hoc methods for finding unknotted circle embed-
ded on a fiber surface. The method of the preceding section gives a means
of seeing infinitely many unknotted, non-isotopic embedded circles on
the fiber:
In the mapping torus construction, we saw 5 discs on the unit sphere
corresponding tcxthe attaching discs for the two i-handles, and a neigh-
bourhood of the fixed point p. We obtain a thrice punctured disc D] by
removing these disc and an arc joining p to the "West" pole, as in fig,
55:
fig.55
The circle Wis embedded on D
3,
and is unknotted in S3 because un-
like K we never need to slide Wovet any handles in the reduction of
o
the decomposition by handles to the trivial one for B
4
. The same is thus
true for any embedded circle on D
3
, such as Q
i
and Q
2
, These latter cir-
cles represent non-trivial homology classes in H ~ t a H 2 ; Z), which is why
twisting about them transforms K to knots with different Alexander mod-
o
ules. On the other hand, if we take any null-homologous embedded circle
on D
3
, such as W, we obtain together with K
o
a boundary link. Twisting
will thus leave the Seifert form invariant. Many examples of such knots
may be obtained by viewing D
3
as a 4-punctured sphere and taking the
images of Wunder the action of the braid group on these punctures. We
illustrate in the following fig.56
We see in fact that by arranging any s e q u e n d ~ of such embedded cir-
64
cles on concentric spheres, we can twist K about all of them any number
o
of times, simultaneously. It is clear that until techniques are improved,
case by case distinction of these knots will be a difficult task. Note
that we may proceed in exactly the same way for the knot S
o
We offer the following conjecture
65
Conjecture; Every doubly slice fibered knot is constructible by
isotopy.
This would imply that very few of the examples of algebraically
doubly slice knots just given are in fact doubly slice. A full under-
standing requires the classification of diffeomorphisms of a surface or
handlebody obtainable by isotopy in S3. In this respect we are again
seeing a manifestation of codimension 1 embedding phenomena in the
understanding of doubly slice knots.
As support for our conjecture, we prove
Theorem: 6.5 Every simple, fibered doubly slice odd dimensional knot
arises by isotopy.
Proof. We generalise the construction of K
n
Consider the standard decomposition
u #
Dr+1 X Sn-r-1
k '
the two submanifolds being giliued together along their common boundary
#k Sr X Sn-r-1. Choose as .reference point X
o
E #k Sr X Sn-r-1 = F ~ ~ r
and a small ball neighbourhood B
n
of x which intersects each of
o 0
#k Sr X D
n-r
and #k Dr+1 X Sn-r-1 in an n-ball.
Now let h
t:
Sn ~ Sn , t E [0,1J , be an ambient isotopy from the
,
identity to h
1,
which preserves the decomposition (*) , and such that
h
t
preserves B: for all t, with h
1
restricting to the identity. Hence
we may construct the mapping torus of h
1
by isotopy inside Sn X S1.
Since B: is preserved by h
1,
we may remove B ~ X S1 and glue in
n-1 2 n-1 1 n n r
S X D along the common boundary S X S Now aB . intersects F.Ie'
o \
66
in an equatorial (n-2)-sphere K
n-2,
which is the boundary of the
hemispheres = '0B ih#ki Sr X D
n-r
and D
n-1
= QB
n
rn #' nr+1 X Sn-r-1
- 0 k
Thus S
n- 1 X D
2
-- D
n-1
X D
2
U X D
2
d . b f add'
+ _' an we Vlew as e ore lng
Sn-1 X D
2
as adding a 2-handle to'
n-1 1
along D+ X S
1 n-1 1
S along D_ X S and to
(# Sr X D
n-r
_ B
n
) X S1
k 0 h
1
(# Dr+l X Sn-r-1 _ B
n
) X
k .0 h
1
Thus K
n-2
is a knot in the common boundary !:" of these two man-
A =
n-r-1
In particular, if det(A -I) =+1
r -
ifolds. Note that we have a choice o:f glueing maps here.
Now ona (#k Sr X D
n-r)
, Poincare duality allows us t.o choose bases
a
i
forH
r(
z) = Zk and b
j
:for H
n_r_1
( Z) = zk, such
that under the intersection pairing (a., b.) = b.. , and furthermore
l J lJ
such that the a. are represented by the spheres (Sr X *). in the i
t h_
l l
(
n- r - 1) th
summand, and the b. represented by the spheres * X S . in the j .
J J
Let A be the induced automorphism of H ( Fkn,r; Z). Hence
x x
(a., b.) (A (a.), A
1(b.))
= S..
a J a, J r l . n-r- J l J
A-
t
r +
then det(A - I) =-1
n-r-1
The following isa trivial consequence o:f higher dimensional handle
body theory;
Proposition: 6. 6 If r 2, n-r-1 '2 , then !: is a codimensi.on 1
sphere Sn smoothly embedded in Sn+1, and K
n-2
is a doubly slice :fibered
knot in if and only if det(A - I)
r
+
=
From this we may easily conclude
Theorem; Every simple doubly slice fibered knot can be constructed
by in odd dimensions, as well as many even dimensional,knots.
Proo:f: As we have seen, the monodromy of a fibered doubly slice knot
determines the Seifert form. This in turn, for simple odd dimensional
knots, determines the knot isotopy class. Hence we need only show that
all possible monodromies may be realised by isotopy.
a) Consider an unknotted handlebody H
k
in S3. By ambiently sliding hand-
les, any desired automorphism of H
1(Hk;
z) = Zk may be realised by
isotopy.
b) Now consider the inclusion # Sr X D
n-r
~ Sn <---) Sn+1
k
Any diffeomorphism of #k Sr X D
n-r
induced by isotopy in Sn gives rise
to a diffeomorphism of #k Sr X If1-r+:b (#k Sr X D
n-r
) X I by isotopy in
Sn+1, and thus also' of the complementary #k Dr+1 XS
n-r
in Sn+1.
Thus we consider an ambientfusotopy of S3, and the inclusions
345 6
S '-+8 ~ S ~ S ~ . ~ ....
where H is the Hilbert cube.
We see then that not only have we proved the theorem, but we have
also constructed simultaneously many non-simple knots in all dimensions
which are fibered and doubly slice. All of these examples arise as
appropriate finite dimensional slices of a "doubly slice .fibered SOO in S(I)1
1
- we may write this
This phenomena, which we call synchronicity, is analogous to the period-
icity of Neumann and Kauffman (27).
We conclude with a natural question:
Question: Can examples of doubly slice knots be constructed in this
way which are not doubles of ball pairs?? We note that the prime exam-
pIes we gave in the classical dimension arose in this way_
7 FURTHER ASPECTS IN DIMENSION 4
68
We would like to point out how the construction of the knots K ties
n
in with the Gluck construction (18). Gluck has shown that, given a knot
K in S4 with neighbourhood S2 X D
2,
we can pbtain at most two homotopy
4-spheres by removing S2 X D
2
and reglueing by spinning the S2 factor
121
m times as we go around the S factor of the boundary S X S He proves
2 2
this by showing that spinning twice extends over S X D , in which case
the possible 4-manifolds obtainable depend on m mod 2.
It is a major problem whether every homotopy 4-sphere arising in
this way is standard. Some of' the strongest candidates for counter-exam-
pIes to the Poincare conjecture are known to be of this form, most nota-
bly the double covers of' Cappell and Shaneson vs (9) exotic projective
spaces. We ref'er for more details to Akbulut and Kirby (2) and Aitchison
and Rubinstein (1 ). On the other hand, Gordon has shown that f'or twist
spun knots, even though the Gluck construction gives S4 again, the knot
2 2
obtaaned as the core of the reglued S X D is not isotopic to the orig-
inal knot (21)
Our purpose here is to point out an integral manifestation of the'
Gluck construction, ie where the phenomena does not reduce mod 2.
Theorem: 7.1 The knots K are all symmetric slices of the O-spun fig-
n
I
ure 8 k n o t j c ~ . .and arise by perf'orming the Gluck construction on a symm-
etric unknot in the complement of K.
Proof': If we "double" the dif'f'eomorphism f
n
on H
2
we obtain a dif'f'eo-
morphism of' #2 S2 X S1. As bef'ore we may construct the mapping torus,
and perform surgery along the circle swept out by the fixed point p to
obtain S4. For f' we obtain the O-spin of the figure 8 knot, arising as
o
the image in 8
4
of' the boundary Z-sphere of' the ball neighbourhood of' p
in #Z sZ X S1. We can see this alternatively as the double of' the ball
pair (B
4
, R ).
o
To consturct
we need only make
a handlebody description f'or the surgered mapping torus
minor additions to the picture obtained f'or (B
4,
R ).
n
In doubling HZ we introduce two additional Z-handles, which in the pict-
ure f'or the mapping torus thicken to give 4-dimensional Z-handles attach-
ed to unknotted meridional circles f'or d
1
and .d
Z
To identif'y these two
handles with their images under f' we must add 3-handles, but as the
o
attaching maps f'or these do not change the outcome, we need not draw them
explicitly, as in ( Z). Now notice that the circle Wmay be unlinked f'rom
the rest of' the diagram, using the two new Z-handles, and so any amount
of' twisting around Wcannot change the 4-manif'01d. In other words, the
double of' the ball pair (B
4,
R ) is always (s4, K).
n
What we are dUng here to obtain K iSiDblowing down the disc bound
n
ed by Win B
4,
and when we double, we are perf'orming the Gluck construc-
tion on the double of' W,which is asymmetric unknotted Z-sphere in the
complement of' K.
Finally we can summarise all of' the properties of' theK in
n
Theorem 7.Z There exist inf'initely many distinct prime knots K in s3
n
which are i) fibered of' genus Z
ii) ribbon, bounding'ribbonsR in B
4,
such that
n
iii) B
4
- R f'ibers over S1 with f'iber a handlebody
n
Furthermore,iv) S3 - K has pseudo-Anosov monodromy, and thus admits a
n
complete Riemannian metric of' conat.aat,". curvature -1
v) each K is doubly slice
n
vi) K is a symmetric slice of the a-spun figure 8 knot
n
vii) K can be constructed by isotopy
n
viii) K is prime
n
ix) the Seifert form of K is independent of n.
n
70
CorollarY7.3 There exist infinitely many ribbon knots bounding distinct,
ie non-isotopic, ribbons in B
4
Proof: Observe that if the two ribbons for K
n
a,risingby taking the
intersection of the unknot in S4 with the upper and lower hemispheres
were isotopic, we would have proved that the unknot is isotopic in S4
to the a-spun figure 8 knot.
This phenomena is widespread. In fact
Theorem 7.4 There exist infinitely many distinct knots, each of which
bounds infinitely many non-isotopic ribbons inB
4.
I
Proof. Again, this is a consequence of the twist-spinning construction.
For any knot K, the k-twist spin can be constructed by cutting open S4
along the equatorial 3-sphere, with the a-spin of K symmetrically sep"'.
arated. We reglue after carrying out an ambient isotopy of K # -K in S3,
spinning one of the factors k times, and returning it to i tsoriginal
,
position. The new ribbon we obtain is not isotopic to the original keep-
ing the knot fixed in S3, for ptherwise the various k-twist spins would
not be distinct knots.
The same argument shows how we can take an arbitrary 2-knot, slice
it open along a 3-sphere, and reglue after a "motion" of the link of
intersection to obtain new 2-knots. We shall describe elsewhere how
GoldsmithB theory of motion groups of the unlink in S3 leads to a c h a r ~
acterisation of ribbon 2-knots. (19,20)
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