In this paper, we introduce a new type of relation between knots called the descendant relation. One knot $H$ is a descendant of another knot $K$ if $H$ can be obtained from a minimal crossing diagram of $K$ by some number of crossing changes. We explore properties of the descendant relation and study how certain knots are related, paying particular attention to those knots, called fertile knots, that have a large number of descendants. Furthermore, we provide computational data related to various notions of knot fertility and propose several open questions for future exploration.

Jason Cantarella Allison Henrich Elsa Magness Oliver O'Keefe Kayla Perez Eric J. Rawdon Briana Zimmer

Site-specific recombination is an enzymatic process where two sites of precise sequence and orientation along a circle come together, are cleaved, and the ends are recombined. Site-specific recombination on a knotted substrate produces another knot or a two-component link depending on the relative orientation of the sites prior to recombination. Mathematically, site-specific recombination is modeled as coherent (knot to link) or non-coherent (knot to knot) banding. We here survey recent developments in the study of non-coherent bandings on knots and discuss biological implications.

Allison H. Moore Mariel Vazquez

We introduce the notion of adjacency in three-manifolds. A three-manifold $Y$ is $n$-adjacent to another three-manifold $Z$ if there exists an $n$-component link in $Y$ and surgery slopes for that link such that performing Dehn surgery along any nonempty sublink yields $Z$. We characterize adjacencies from three-manifolds to the three-sphere, providing an analogy to Askitas and Kalfagianni's results on $n$-adjacency in knots.

Tye Lidman Allison H. Moore

We show that the number of anti-lecture hall compositions of n with the first entry not exceeding k-2 equals the number of overpartitions of n with non-overlined parts not congruent to $0,\pm 1$ modulo k. This identity can be considered as a refined version of the anti-lecture hall theorem of Corteel and Savage. To prove this result, we find two Rogers-Ramanujan type identities for overpartition which are analogous to the Rogers-Ramanjan type identities due to Andrews. When k is odd, we give an alternative proof by using a generalized Rogers-Ramanujan identity due to Andrews, a bijection of Corteel and Savage and a refined version of a bijection also due to Corteel and Savage.

William Y. C. Chen Doris D. M. Sang Diane Y. H. Shi

We perform a precise calculation of the mass of the B_c meson using unquenched configurations from the MILC collaboration including 2+1 flavours of improved staggered quarks. Lattice NRQCD and the Fermilab formalism are used to describe the b and c quarks respectively. We find the mass of the B_c meson to be 6.304(16) GeV

I. F. Allison C. T. H Davies A. Gray A. S. Kronfeld P. B. Mackenzie J. N. Simone

We present preliminary results using NRQCD to describe heavy quarks on the MILC 2+1 flavour dynamical extra coarse ensemble. We calculate the spectra of low lying states in bottomonium to complement earlier results on the finer MILC ensembles. We then exploit the coarseness of the lattices to calculate charm propagators using NRQCD. These are used to examine the charmonium spectrum and to calclate the mass of the $B_c$ using NRQCD. Finally we look breifly at the $B_d$ and $B_s$ systems using the imporoved staggered formalism to describe the light valence quarks.

I. F. Allison C. T. H. Davies A. Gray

Using Hirasawa-Murasugi's classification of fibered Montesinos knots we classify the L-space Montesinos knots, providing further evidence towards a conjecture of Lidman-Moore that L-space knots have no essential Conway spheres. In the process, we classify the fibered Montesinos knots whose open books support the tight contact structure on $S^3$. We also construct L-space knots with arbitrarily large tunnel number and discuss the question of whether L-space knots admit essential tangle decompositions in the context of satellite operations and tunnel number.

Kenneth L. Baker Allison H. Moore

The cosmetic crossing conjecture (also known as the "nugatory crossing conjecture") asserts that the only crossing changes that preserve the oriented isotopy class of a knot in the 3-sphere are nugatory. We use the Dehn surgery characterization of the unknot to prove this conjecture for knots in integer homology spheres whose branched double covers are L-spaces satisfying a homological condition. This includes as a special case all alternating and quasi-alternating knots with square-free determinant. As an application, we prove the cosmetic crossing conjecture holds for all knots with at most nine crossings and provide new examples of knots, including pretzel knots, non-arborescent knots and symmetric unions for which the conjecture holds.

Tye Lidman Allison H. Moore

We study Heegaard Floer homology and various related invariants (such as the $h$-function) for two-component L-space links with linking number zero. For such links, we explicitly describe the relationship between the $h$-function, the Sato-Levine invariant and the Casson invariant. We give a formula for the Heegaard Floer $d$-invariants of integral surgeries on two-component L-space links of linking number zero in terms of the $h$-function, generalizing a formula of Ni and Wu. As a consequence, for such links with unknotted components, we characterize L-space surgery slopes in terms of the $\nu^{+}$-invariants of the knots obtained from blowing down the components. We give a proof of a skein inequality for the $d$-invariants of $+1$ surgeries along linking number zero links that differ by a crossing change. We also describe bounds on the smooth four-genus of links in terms of the $h$-function, expanding on previous work of the second author, and use these bounds to calculate the four-genus in several examples of links.

Eugene Gorsky Beibei Liu Allison H. Moore

The Gordian graph and H(2)-Gordian graphs of knots are abstract graphs whose vertex sets represent isotopy classes of unoriented knots, and whose edge sets record whether pairs of knots are related by crossing changes or H(2)-moves, respectively. We investigate quotients of these graphs under equivalence relations defined by several knot invariants including the determinant, the span of the Jones polynomial, and an invariant related to tricolorability. We show, in all cases considered, that the quotient graphs are Gromov hyperbolic. We then prove a collection of results about the graph isomorphism type of the quotient graphs. In particular, we find that the H(2)-Gordian graph of links modulo the relation induced by the span of the Jones polynomial is isomorphic with the complete graph on infinitely many vertices.

Christopher Flippen Allison H. Moore Essak Seddiq