Slice-torus link invariants, combinatorial invariants, and positivity conditions

Abstract

We prove some necessary conditions for a link to be either concordant to a quasi-positive link, quasi-positive, positive, or the closure of a positive braid. The main applications of our results are a characterisation of positive links with unlinking number $1$ and $2$, and a combinatorial criterion to test if a positive link is the closure of a positive braid. Finally, we compile a table of all positive and positive-braid prime links with less than $8$ crossings.

20 pages, 7 figures, 1 Table. Some small aesthetic changes, small typos fixed, and exposition improved. Added table of positive and braid-positive links with less than 8 crossings. Accepted by the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. Comments are welcome!

References in corpus (6)

• Floer homology and knot complements
• Algebraic functions and closed braids
• The concordance invariant tau in link grid homology
• Up to topological concordance links are strongly quasipositive
• Slice-torus concordance invariants and Whitehead doubles of links
• Locally equivalent Floer complexes and unoriented link cobordisms