No Arabic abstract
Kronheimer and Mrowka asked whether the difference between the four-dimensional clasp number and the slice genus can be arbitrarily large. This question is answered affirmatively by studying a knot invariant derived from equivariant singular instanton theory, and which is closely related to the Chern--Simons functional. This also answers a conjecture of Livingston about slicing numbers. Also studied is the singular instanton Fr{o}yshov invariant of a knot. If defined with integer coefficients, this gives a lower bound for the unoriented slice genus, and is computed for quasi-alternating and torus knots. In contrast, for certain other coefficient rings, the invariant is identified with a multiple of the knot signature. This result is used to address a conjecture by Poudel and Saveliev about traceless $SU(2)$ representations of torus knots. Further, for a concordance between knots with non-zero signature, it is shown that there is a traceless representation of the concordance complement which restricts to non-trivial representations of the knot groups. Finally, some evidence towards an extension of the slice-ribbon conjecture to torus knots is provided.
For each integral homology sphere $Y$, a function $Gamma_Y$ on the set of integers is constructed. It is established that $Gamma_Y$ depends only on the homology cobordism of $Y$ and it recovers the Fr{o}yshov invariant. A relation between $Gamma_Y$ and Fintushel-Sterns $R$-invariant is stated. It is shown that the value of $Gamma_Y$ at each integer is related to the critical values of the Chern-Simons functional. Some topological applications of $Gamma_Y$ are given. In particular, it is shown that if $Gamma_Y$ is trivial, then there is no simply connected homology cobordism from $Y$ to itself.
In this paper we introduce a new method for generating gauged sigma models from four-dimensional Chern-Simons theory and give a unified action for a class of these models. We begin with a review of recent work by several authors on the classical generation of integrable sigma models from four dimensional Chern-Simons theory. This approach involves introducing classes of two dimensional defects into the bulk on which the gauge field must satisfy certain boundary conditions. By solving the equations of motion of the gauge one finds an integrable sigma models by substituting the solution back into the action. This integrability is guaranteed because the gauge field is gauge equivalent to the Lax connection of the sigma model. By considering a theory with two four-dimensional Chern-Simons fields coupled together on two dimensional surfaces in the bulk we are able to introduce new classes of `gauged defects. By solving the bulk equations of motion we find a unified action for a set of genus zero integrable gauged sigma models. The integrability of these models is guaranteed as the new coupling does not break the gauge equivalence of the gauged fields to their Lax connections. Finally, we consider a couple of examples in which we derive the gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten and Nilpotent gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models. This latter model is of note given one can find the conformal Toda models from it.
In the 1980s Daryl Cooper introduced the notion of a C-complex (or clasp-complex) bounded by a link and explained how to compute signatures and polynomial invariants using a C-complex. Since then this was extended by works of Cimasoni, Florens, Mellor, Melvin, Conway, Toffoli, Friedl, and others to compute other link invariants. Informally a C-complex is a union of surfaces which are allowed to intersect each other in clasps. The purpose of the current paper is to study the minimal number of clasps amongst all C-complexes bounded by a fixed link $L$. This measure of complexity is related to the number of crossing changes needed to reduce $L$ to a boundary link. We prove that if $L$ is a 2-component link with nonzero linking number, then the linking number determines the minimal number of clasps amongst all C-complexes. In the case of 3-component links, the triple linking number provides an additional lower bound on the number of clasps in a C-complex.
In the vicinity of points in Calabi-Yau moduli space where there are degenerating three-cycles the low energy effective action of type IIA string theory will contain significant contributions arising from membrane instantons that wrap around these three-cycles. We show that the world-volume description of these instantons is Chern-Simons theory.
Five dimensional Chern-Simons theory with (anti-)de Sitter SO(1,5) or SO(2,4) gauge invariance presents an alternative to General Relativity with cosmological constant. We consider the zero-modes of its Kaluza-Klein compactification to four dimensions. Solutions with vanishing torsion are obtained in the cases of a spherically symmetric 3-space and of a homogeneous and isotropic 3-space, which reproduce the Schwarzshild-de Sitter and $Lambda$CDM cosmological solutions of General Relativity. We also check that vanishing torsion is a stable feature of the solutions.