Heegaard Floer homology and integer surgeries on links

Let L be a link in an integral homology three-sphere. We give a description of the Heegaard Floer homology of integral surgeries on L in terms of some data associated to L, which we call a complete system of hyperboxes for L. Roughly, a complete systems of hyperboxes consists of chain complexes for (some versions of) the link Floer homology of L and all its sublinks, together with several chain maps between these complexes. Further, we introduce a way of presenting closed four-manifolds with b_2^+ > 1 by four-colored framed links in the three-sphere. Given a link presentation of this kind for a four-manifold X, we then describe the Ozsvath-Szabo mixed invariants of X in terms of a complete system of hyperboxes for the link. Finally, we explain how a grid diagram produces a particular complete system of hyperboxes for the corresponding link.Comment: 231 pages, 54 figures; major revision: we now work with one U variable for each w basepoint, rather than one per link component; we also added Section 4, with an overview of the main resul

Contact surgeries and the transverse invariant in knot Floer homology

We study naturality properties of the transverse invariant in knot Floer homology under contact (+1)-surgery. This can be used as a calculational tool for the transverse invariant. As a consequence, we show that the Eliashberg-Chekanov twist knots E_n are not transversely simple for n odd and n>3.Comment: Corrected naturality discussion

An overview of knot Floer homology

Knot Floer homology is an invariant for knots discovered by the authors and, independently, Jacob Rasmussen. The discovery of this invariant grew naturally out of studying how a certain three-manifold invariant, Heegaard Floer homology, changes as the three-manifold undergoes Dehn surgery along a knot. Since its original definition, thanks to the contributions of many researchers, knot Floer homology has emerged as a useful tool for studying knots in its own right. We give here a few selected highlights of this theory, and then move on to some new algebraic developments in the computation of knot Floer homology