On Heegaard Floer minimal knots in sutured manifolds

Abstract

Li-Xie-Zhang classified instanton Floer minimal knots in balanced sutured manifolds subject to a condition on the fundamental group. In this paper, we give a similar classification in the Heegaard Floer homology setting. Since our classifications agree when they are both applicable, this provides further evidence for the conjecture of Kronheimer-Mrowka that instanton Floer homology and Heegaard Floer homology are isomorphic. We also study link Floer homology botany question in $S^1\times S^2$, showing that link Floer homology detects spherical braid closures among homologically nontrivial links.

v2: 22 pages, 3 figures, various corrections and clarifications