Stein fillings and SU(2) representations

We recently defined invariants of contact 3-manifolds using a version of instanton Floer homology for sutured manifolds. In this paper, we prove that if several contact structures on a 3-manifold are induced by Stein structures on a single 4-manifold with distinct Chern classes modulo torsion then their contact invariants in sutured instanton homology are linearly independent. As a corollary, we show that if a 3-manifold bounds a Stein domain that is not an integer homology ball then its fundamental group admits a nontrivial homomorphism to SU(2). We give several new applications of these results, proving the existence of nontrivial and irreducible SU(2) representations for a variety of 3-manifold groups

Invariants of Legendrian and transverse knots in monopole knot homology

We use the contact invariant defined in [2] to construct a new invariant of Legendrian knots in Kronheimer and Mrowka's monopole knot homology theory (KHM), following a prescription of Stipsicz and V\'ertesi. Our Legendrian invariant improves upon an earlier Legendrian invariant in KHM defined by the second author in several important respects. Most notably, ours is preserved by negative stabilization. This fact enables us to define a transverse knot invariant in KHM via Legendrian approximation. It also makes our invariant a more likely candidate for the monopole Floer analogue of the "LOSS" invariant in knot Floer homology. Like its predecessor, our Legendrian invariant behaves functorially with respect to Lagrangian concordance. We show how this fact can be used to compute our invariant in several examples. As a byproduct of our investigations, we provide the first infinite family of nonreversible Lagrangian concordances between prime knots

Instanton Floer homology and contact structures

We define an invariant of contact 3-manifolds with convex boundary using Kronheimer and Mrowka’s sutured instanton Floer homology theory. This is the first invariant of contact manifolds—with or without boundary—defined in the instanton Floer setting. We prove that our invariant vanishes for overtwisted contact structures and is nonzero for contact manifolds with boundary which embed into Stein fillable contact manifolds. Moreover, we propose a strategy by which our contact invariant might be used to relate the fundamental group of a closed contact 3-manifold to properties of its Stein fillings. Our construction is inspired by a reformulation of a similar invariant in the monopole Floer setting defined by Baldwin and Sivek (arXiv:1403.1930, 2014)

Khovanov homology detects the trefoils

We prove that Khovanov homology detects the trefoils. Our proof incorporates an array of ideas in Floer homology and contact geometry. It uses open books; the contact in-variants we defined in the instanton Floer setting; a bypass exact triangle in sutured instanton homology, proven here; and Kronheimer and Mrowka’s spectral sequence relating Khovanov homology with singular instanton knot homology. As a by product, we also strengthen a result of Kronheimer and Mrowka on SU(2) representations of the knot group

SU(2)-cyclic surgeries and the pillowcase

We study knots in $S^3$ with infinitely many $SU(2)$-cyclic surgeries, which are Dehn surgeries such that every representation of the resulting fundamental group into $SU(2)$ has cyclic image. We show that for every such nontrivial knot $K$, its set of $SU(2)$-cyclic slopes is bounded and has a unique limit point, which is both a rational number and a boundary slope for $K$. We also show that such knots are prime and have infinitely many instanton L-space surgeries. Our methods include the application of holonomy perturbation techniques to instanton knot homology, using a strengthening of recent work by the second author

Surgery obstructions and character varieties

We provide infinitely many rational homology 3-spheres with weight- one fundamental groups which do not arise from Dehn surgery on knots in S3. In contrast with previously known examples, our proofs do not require any gauge theory or Floer homology. Instead, we make use of the SU (2) character variety of the fundamental group, which for these manifolds is particularly simple: they are all SU (2)-cyclic, meaning that every SU (2) representation has cyclic image. Our analysis relies essentially on Gordon-Luecke’s classification of half-integral toroidal surgeries on hyperbolic knots, and other classical 3-manifold topology

On the complexity of torus knot recognition

We show that the problem of recognizing that a knot diagram represents a specific torus knot, or any torus knot at all, is in the complexity class ${\sf NP} \cap {\sf co\text{-}NP}$, assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis. We also show that satellite knot detection is in ${\sf NP}$ under the same assumption, and that cabled knot detection and composite knot detection are unconditionally in ${\sf NP}$. Our algorithms are based on recent work of Kuperberg and of Lackenby on detecting knottedness

Naturality in sutured monopole and instanton homology

In “Knots, sutures, and excision” (J. Differential Geom. 84, 301–364), Kronheimer and Mrowka defined invariants of balanced sutured manifolds using monopole and instanton Floer homology. Their invariants assign isomorphism classes of modules to balanced sutured manifolds. In this paper, we introduce refinements of these invariants which assign much richer algebraic objects called projectively transitive systems of modules to balanced sutured manifolds and isomorphisms of such systems to diffeomorphisms of balanced sutured manifolds. Our work provides the foundation for extending these sutured Floer theories to other interesting functorial frameworks as well, and can be used to construct new invariants of contact structures and (perhaps) of knots and bordered 3-manifolds

Fillings of unit cotangent bundles

We study the topology of exact and Stein fillings of the canonical contact structure on the unit cotangent bundle of a closed surface Σg, where g is at least 2. In particular, we prove a uniqueness theorem asserting that any Stein filling must be s-cobordant rel boundary to the disk cotangent bundle of Σg. For exact fillings, we show that the rational homology agrees with that of the disk cotangent bundle, and that the integral homology takes on finitely many possible values, including that of DT∗Σg: for example, if g−1 is square-free, then any exact filling has the same integral homology and intersection form as DT∗Σg

Obstructions to Lagrangian concordance

We investigate the question of the existence of a Lagrangian concordance between two Legendrian knots in R3. In particular, we give obstructions to a concordance from an arbitrary knot to the standard Legendrian unknot, in terms of normal rulings. We also place strong restrictions on knots that have concordances both to and from the unknot and construct an infinite family of knots with nonreversible concordances from the unknot. Finally, we use our obstructions to present a complete list of knots with up to 14 crossings that have Legendrian representatives that are Lagrangian slice