On the Upsilon invariant and satellite knots

Abstract

We study the effect of satellite operations on the Upsilon invariant of Ozsvath-Stipsicz-Szabo. We obtain results concerning when a knot and its satellites are independent; for example, we show that the set $\{D_{2^i,1}{\}}_{i=1}^{\infty }$ is a basis for an infinite rank summand of the group of smooth concordance classes of topologically slice knots, for D the positive clasped untwisted Whitehead double of any knot with positive tau-invariant, e.g. the right-handed trefoil. We also prove that the image of the Mazur satellite operator on the smooth knot concordance group contains an infinite rank subgroup of topologically slice knots.

20 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Mathematische Zeitschrift