The Gordon–Litherland form and its many applications
Abstract
Gordon and Litherland’s paper On the Signature of a link introduced a bilinear form that simultaneously unifies both the quadratic forms of Trotter and Goeritz. This remarkable pairing of combinatorics and topology has had widespread application in low-dimensional topology. In this expository note, we give a picture proof (via Kirby diagrams) of their main result and discuss the numerous ways their theorem has been put to good use.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Geometric and Algebraic Topology
Algebraic Geometry and Number Theory
Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications
- Publication date
- 14 January 2026
- Language
- EN