# Generalized square knots and homotopy 4-spheres

## TL;DR

This paper investigates certain homotopy 4-spheres using link surgeries, establishing conditions under which these spheres are standard and introducing generalized square knots as key elements, with implications for the Generalized Property R Conjecture.

## Contribution

It proves that specific homotopy 4-spheres built without 1-handles and with two 2-handles are standard if one handle is attached along a generalized square knot, extending prior results.

## Key findings

- Characterization of 2R-links with fibered knots
- Construction of large families of potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture
- Classification of handlebody-extensions for generalized square knots

## Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study geometrically simply-connected homotopy 4-spheres by analyzing $n$-component links with a Dehn surgery realizing $\#^n(S^1\times S^2)$. We call such links $n$R-links. Our main result is that a homotopy 4-sphere that can be built without 1-handles and with only two 2-handles is diffeomorphic to the standard 4-sphere in the special case that one of the 2-handles is attached along a knot of the form $Q_{p,q} = T_{p,q}\#T_{-p,q}$, which we call a generalized square knot. This theorem subsumes prior results of Akbulut and Gompf. Along the way, we use thin position techniques from Heegaard theory to give a characterization of 2R-links in which one component is a fibered knot, showing that the second component can be converted via trivial handle additions and handleslides to a derivative link contained in the fiber surface. We invoke a theorem of Casson and Gordon and the Equivariant Loop Theorem to classify handlebody-extensions for the closed monodromy of a generalized square knot $Q_{p,q}$. As a consequence, we produce large families, for all even $n$, of $n$R-links that are potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R Conjecture. We also obtain related classification statements for fibered, homotopy-ribbon disks bounded by generalized square knots.