Unknotting information from Heegaard Floer homology

Abstract

We use Heegaard Floer homology to obtain bounds on unknotting numbers. This is a generalisation of Ozsváth and Szabó's obstruction to unknotting number one. We determine the unknotting numbers of 910, 913, 935, 938, 1053, 10101 and 10120; this completes the table of unknotting numbers for prime knots with crossing number nine or less. Our obstruction uses a refined version of Montesinos' theorem which gives a Dehn surgery description of the branched double cover of a knot