papers

Publications (51)

math.GT2024

3-braid knots with maximal 4-genus

Sebastian Baader, Lukas Lewark, Filip Misev +1

We classify 3-braid knots whose topological 4-genus coincides with their Seifert genus, using McCoy's twisting method and the Xu normal form. In addition, we give upper bounds for…

math.GT2006

Moebius bands with a quasipositive fibred hole

Sebastian Baader

We prove that every knot in the 3-space bounds an embedded punctured Moebius band whose other boundary component is a quasipositive fibred knot.

math.GT2013

Trefoil Plumbing

Sebastian Baader, Pierre Dehornoy

We give a criterion for an open book to contain an n-times iterated Hopf plumbing summand. As an application, we show that fibre surfaces of positive braid knots admit a trefoil pl…

math.GT2008

Unknotting sequences for torus knots

Sebastian Baader

The unknotting number of a knot is bounded from below by its slice genus. It is a well-known fact that the genera and unknotting numbers of torus knots coincide. In this note we ch…

math.GT2025

Systoles on punctured spheres

Sebastian Baader, Jasmin Jörg

We determine the maximal number of systoles among all spheres with punctures endowed with a complete Riemannian metric of finite area.

math.GT2021

Secondary Braid Groups

Sebastian Baader, Michael Lönne

We generalize presentations of the fundamental group of discriminant complements and arrive at a class of presentations associated naturally with words in the free monoid of the al…

math.GT2016

The stable 4-genus of alternating knots

Sebastian Baader, Lukas Lewark

We show that the difference between the genus and the stable topological 4-genus of alternating knots is either zero or at least 1/3.

math.GT2014

On the stable 4-genus of knots with indefinite Seifert form

Sebastian Baader

Under a simple assumption on Seifert surfaces, we characterise knots whose stable topological 4-genus coincides with the genus.

math.GT2020

Khovanov width and dealternation number of positive braid links

Sebastian Baader, Peter Feller, Lukas Lewark +1

We give asymptotically sharp upper bounds for the Khovanov width and the dealternation number of positive braid links, in terms of their crossing number. The same braid-theoretic t…

math.GT2020

Coxeter groups and meridional rank of links

Sebastian Baader, Ryan Blair, Alexandra Kjuchukova

We prove the meridional rank conjecture for twisted links and arborescent links associated to bipartite trees with even weights. These links are substantial generalizations of pret…

math.GT2023

Trefoils and hexafoils in 3-braids

Sebastian Baader, Levi Ryffel

We determine the cobordism distance between all positive 3-braid links and connected sums of trefoil knots, up to a constant error. This may be seen as a reinterpretation of Coxete…

math.GT2016

On the stabilisation height of fibre surfaces in

Sebastian Baader, Filip Misev

The stabilisation height of a fibre surface in the 3-sphere is the minimal number of Hopf plumbing operations needed to attain a stable fibre surface from the initial surface. We s…

math.GT2007

Asymptotic Rasmussen Invariant

Sebastian Baader

We use simple properties of the Rasmussen invariant of knots to study its asymptotic behaviour on the orbits of a smooth volume preserving vector field on a compact domain in the 3…

math.GT2021

Minor theory for quasipositive surfaces

Sebastian Baader, Pierre Dehornoy, Livio Liechti

The set of quasipositive surfaces is closed under incompressible inclusion. We prove that the induced order on fibre surfaces of positive braid links is almost a well-quasi-order.…

math.GT2005

A note on Vassiliev invariants of quasipositive knots

Sebastian Baader

It has been known that any Alexander polynomial of a knot can be realized by a quasipositive knot. As a consequence, the Alexander polynomial cannot detect quasipositivity. In this…

cs.RO2026

Pushing the Performance Limits in Autonomous Racing: Continuous Stability-Aware Adaptive Velocity Planning in Formula Student Driverless

Tamara Bergerhoff, Sebastian Baader, Pascal Meißner +1

In autonomous racing, especially in competitions such as Formula Student Driverless, precise planning of the target velocity of a race car is crucial for competitive lap times and…

math.GT2023

Asymptotics of the smooth -realization problem

Sebastian Baader, Peter Feller

We solve an asymptotic variant of a smooth version of the -realization problem for plane curves. As an application, we determine the cobordism distance between torus links of…

math.GT2025

Minimal cobordisms between thin and thick torus knots

Sebastian Baader, Lukas Lewark, Filip Misev +1

We determine the locally flat cobordism distance between torus knots with small and large braid index, up to high precision. Here small means 2, 3, 4, or 6. As an application, we d…

math.GT2019

Minor theory for surfaces and divides of maximal signature

Sebastian Baader, Pierre Dehornoy

The paper is partially withdrawn: in its current form, Lemma 2.3 is false, so that our proof of Theorem A and Proposition B has an important gap. We were unable to fix it yet. Any…

math.GT2012

Positive braids of maximal signature

Sebastian Baader

We characterise positive braid links with positive Seifert form via a finite number of forbidden minors. From this we deduce a one-to-one correspondence between prime positive brai…

math.GT2008

Asymptotic link invariants for ergodic vector fields

Sebastian Baader

We study the asymptotics of a family of link invariants on the orbits of a smooth volume-preserving ergodic vector field on a compact domain of the 3-space. These invariants, calle…

math.GT2021

Arborescence of positive Thompson links

Valeriano Aiello, Sebastian Baader

We show that the links associated with positive elements of the Thompson group coincide with the closures of bipartite arborescent tangles.

cs.RO2026

Vehicle Prediction Model for Enhanced MPC Path Tracking in Formula Student Driverless

Sebastian Baader, Tamara Bergerhoff, Pascal Meißner +1

Autonomous race cars, such as in Formula Student Driverless, operate close to their physical handling limits. The resulting highly nonlinear vehicle behavior increases the path tra…

math.GT2024

On the crossing number of arithmetic curve systems

Sebastian Baader, Claire Burrin, Luca Studer

We show that the family of systoles of hyperbolic surfaces associated with congruence lattices in have asymptotically minimal crossing number.

math.GT2013

The volume of positive braid links

Sebastian Baader

Based on recent work by Futer, Kalfagianni and Purcell, we prove that the volume of sufficiently complicated positive braid links is proportional to the signature defect $Δσ=2g-Ï…

math.GT2021

Signature spectrum of positive braids

Sebastian Baader

We derive a lower bound for all Levine-Tristram signatures of positive braid links, linear in terms of the first Betti number. As a consequence, we obtain upper and lower bounds on…

math.GT2008

Asymptotic Vassiliev Invariants for Vector Fields

Sebastian Baader, Julien Marche

We analyse the asymptotical growth of Vassiliev invariants on non-periodic flow lines of ergodic vector fields on domains of . More precisely, we show that the asymptotics of…

math.GT2005

Slice and Gordian numbers of track knots

Sebastian Baader

We present a class of knots associated with labelled generic immersions of intervals into the plane and compute their Gordian numbers and 4-dimensional invariants. At least 10% of…

math.GT2006

Legendrian graphs and quasipositive diagrams

Sebastian Baader, Masaharu Ishikawa

In this paper we clarify the relationship between ribbon surfaces of Legendrian graphs and quasipositive diagrams by using certain fence diagrams. As an application, we give an alt…

math.GT2017

Symmetric quotients of knot groups and a filtration of the Gordian graph

Sebastian Baader, Alexandra Kjuchukova

We define a metric filtration of the Gordian graph by an infinite family of 1-dense subgraphs. The n-th subgraph of this family is generated by all knots whose fundamental groups s…

math.GT2022

Positive oriented Thompson links

Valeriano Aiello, Sebastian Baader

We prove that the links associated with positive elements of the oriented subgroup of the Thompson group are positive.

math.GT2018

Signature and concordance of positive knots

Sebastian Baader, Pierre Dehornoy, Livio Liechti

We derive a linear estimate of the signature of positive knots, in terms of their genus. As an application, we show that every knot concordance class contains at most finitely many…

math.GT2022

Monomial reduction of knot polynomials

Sebastian Baader

For all natural numbers and prime numbers , we find a knot whose skein polynomial evaluated at has trivial reduction modulo . An interesting conseque…

math.GT2026

The crossing number of polynomial curve systems

Sebastian Baader, Jasmin Jörg, Hugo Parlier

We determine the crossing number of polynomial size curve systems on standard surfaces, in terms of the genus, up to high precision.

math.GT2026

Étude on the Delta-unknotting number

Sebastian Baader, Lukas Lewark

We derive an almost sharp lower bound on the Casson invariant of positive braid knots. As a consequence, we show that the -unknotting number is quasi-additive on the set of pos…

math.GT2022

Two strand twisting

Lambert A'Campo, Sebastian Baader, Livio Ferretti +1

We prove that fibred knots cannot be untied with -moves, for all . More generally, we give an upper bound on the number of two strand twist operations that…

math.GT2021

Average four-genus of two-bridge knots

Sebastian Baader, Alexandra Kjuchukova, Lukas Lewark +2

We prove that the expected value of the ratio between the smooth four-genus and the Seifert genus of two-bridge knots tends to zero as the crossing number tends to infinity.

math.GT2022

On the Jones polynomial modulo primes

Valeriano Aiello, Sebastian Baader, Livio Ferretti

We derive an upper bound on the density of Jones polynomials of knots modulo a prime number , within a sufficiently large degree range: . As an application, we classify k…

math.GT2011

Bipartite graphs and combinatorial adjacency

Sebastian Baader

We present a simple combinatorial model for quasipositive surfaces and positive braids, based on embedded bipartite graphs. As a first application, we extend the well-known duality…

math.GT2024

Combinatorial cusp count and clover invariants

Sebastian Baader, Masaharu Ishikawa

We construct efficient topological cobordisms between torus links and large connected sums of trefoil knots. As an application, we show that the signature invariant at $ω=…

math.GT2022

Bouquets of curves in surfaces

Sebastian Baader, Peter Feller, Levi Ryffel

We characterise when a set of simple closed curves in an orientable surface forms a bouquet, in terms of relations between the corresponding Dehn twists.

math.GT2016

On the topological 4-genus of torus knots

Sebastian Baader, Peter Feller, Lukas Lewark +1

We prove that the topological locally flat slice genus of large torus knots takes up less than three quarters of the ordinary genus. As an application, we derive the best possible…

math.GT2007

Gordian distance and Vassiliev invariants

Sebastian Baader

The Gordian distance between two knots measures how many crossing changes are needed to transform one knot into the other. It is known that there are always infinitely many non-equ…

math.GT2011

Scissor equivalence for torus links

Sebastian Baader

This article is about a natural distance function induced by smooth cobordisms between links. We show that the cobordism distance of torus links is determined by the profiles of th…

math.GT2021

Untwisting 3-strand torus knots

Sebastian Baader, Ian Banfield, Lukas Lewark

We prove that the signature bound for the topological 4-genus of 3-strand torus knots is sharp, using McCoy's twisting method. We also show that the bound is off by at most 1 for 4…

math.GT2025

Sparse curve systems have intermediate growth type

Sebastian Baader, Jasmin Jörg, Danica Kosanović

A system of simple closed curves on a surface of genus is said to be sparse if their average pairwise intersection number does not exceed one. We show that the maximal size of…

math.GT2020

Checkerboard graph monodromies

Sebastian Baader, Lukas Lewark, Livio Liechti

We associate an open book with any connected plane checkerboard graph, thus providing a common extension of the classes of prime positive braid links and positive tree-like Hopf pl…

math.GT2006

Construction of non-alternating knots

Sebastian Baader

We investigate the behaviour of Rasmussen's invariant under the sharp operation on knots and obtain a lower bound for the sharp unknotting number. This bound leads us to an int…

math.GT2020

The bridge number of arborescent links with many twigs

Sebastian Baader, Ryan Blair, Alexandra Kjuchukova +1

We prove the meridional rank conjecture for arborescent links associated to plane trees with the following property: all branching points carry a straight branch to at least three…

math.GT2009

Legendrian framings for two-bridge links

Sebastian Baader, Masaharu Ishikawa

We define the Thurston-Bennequin polytope of a two-component link as the convex hull of all pairs of integers that arise as framings of a Legendrian representative. The main result…

math.MG2019

Distortion of spheres and surfaces in space

Sebastian Baader, Luca Studer, Roger Züst

It is known that the surface of a cone over the unit disc with large height has smaller distortion than the standard embedding of the 2-sphere in . In this note we sho…