Cha's primary decomposition conjecture for the topologically slice concordance group

Let QZ[t]\mathcal{Q} \subset {\mathbb Z}[t] be the set of irreducible polynomials q(t)q(t) satisfying q(1)=1q(1)=1, and let

P={q(t)q(t1)Z[t,t1]q(t)Q}.\mathcal{P}=\{q(t)q(t^{-1})\in {\mathbb Z}[t,t^{-1}]\mid q(t)\in\mathcal{Q}\}.

Let T\mathcal{T} be the subgroup of the smooth knot concordance group consisting of topologically slice knots. For pPp\in\mathcal{P}, let Tp\mathcal{T}^p be the subgroup generated by topologically slice knots whose Alexander polynomial is a product of copies of pp, and let T1\mathcal{T}^1 be the subgroup generated by topologically slice knots with Alexander polynomial one. Define

TΔp=Tp/T1,TΔ=T/T1.\mathcal{T}^p_\Delta=\mathcal{T}^p/\mathcal{T}^1,\qquad \mathcal{T}_\Delta=\mathcal{T}/\mathcal{T}^1.

Cha's primary decomposition conjecture. The canonical homomorphisms TΔpTΔ\mathcal{T}^p_\Delta\to\mathcal{T}_\Delta induce an isomorphism

Φ:pPTΔpTΔ.\Phi:\bigoplus_{p\in\mathcal{P}}\mathcal{T}^p_\Delta\to\mathcal{T}_\Delta.

This conjecture asserts that, after quotienting by the subgroup generated by Alexander-polynomial-one knots, the topologically slice concordance group decomposes into independent primary summands indexed by the symmetric Alexander polynomials in P\mathcal{P}. The statement is presented here without evidence of a resolution.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Charles Livingston, “Primary decompositions of knot concordance”, arXiv:1911.08280 (2019).

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