CONTENTS

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. PREFACE ix
4. I. INTRODUCTION 1
5. II. LINKING NUMBERS AND REIDEMEISTER MOVES 9
6. III. THE CONWAY POLYNOMIAL 19
7. IV. EXAMPLE S AND SKEIN THEORY 42
8. V. DETECTING SLICES AND RIBBONS— A FIRST PASS 70
9. VI. MISCELLANY 92
10. VII. SPANNING SURFACES AND THE SEIFERT PAIRING 181
11. VIII. RIBBONS AND SLICES 208
12. IX. THE ALEXANDER POLYNOMIAL AND BRANCHED COVERINGS 229
13. X. THE ALEXANDER POLYNOMIAL AND THE ARF INVARIANT 252
14. XI. FREE DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS 262
15. XII. CYCLIC BRANCHED COVERINGS 271
16. XIII. SIGNATURE THEOREMS 299
17. XIV. G-SIGNATURE THEOREM FOR FOUR MANIFOLDS 327
18. XV. SIGNATURE OF CYCLIC BRANCHED COVERINGS 332
19. XVI. AN INVARIANT FOR COVERINGS 337
20. XVII. SLICE KNOTS 345
21. XVIII. CALCULATING σ_r FOR GENERALIZED STEVEDORE’S KNOT 355
22. XIX. SINGULARITIES, KNOTS AND BRIESKORN VARIETIES 366
23. APPENDIX. GENERALIZED POLYNOMIALS AND A STATE MODEL FOR THE JONES POLYNOMIAL 417
24. KNOT TABLES AND THE L-POLYNOMIAL 444
25. REFERENCES 474