Instanton L-spaces and splicing

Abstract: We prove that the 3-manifold obtained by gluing the complements of two nontrivial knots in homology 3-sphere instanton L-spaces, by a map which identifies meridians with Seifert longitudes, cannot be an instanton L-space. This recovers the recent theorem of Lidman-Pinzon-Caicedo-Zentner that the fundamental group of every closed, oriented, toroidal 3-manifold admits a nontrivial SU(2)-representation, and consequently Zentner's earlier result that the fundamental group of every closed, oriented 3-manifold besides the 3-sphere admits a nontrivial SL(2, C)-representation. This is joint work with Steven Sivek.

Mathematics

Audience: researchers in the topic

MIT Geometry and Topology Seminar

Series comments: Password is "topology".