A loop theorem for duality spaces and fibred ribbon knots

Abstract

In this paper we prove a version of the loop theorem for surfaces in the boundary of a 3-dimensional duality space, i.e. a space which resembles a 3manifold only in that it satisfies the appropriate form of Poincar6-Lefschetz duality over some field of untwisted coefficients. Our motivation comes from the fact that such spaces occur as the infinite cyclic coverings of certain 4manifolds which arise in the study of knot concordance, and as the main application of our theorem we show that if a fibred knot in the 3-sphere is a ribbon knot, then its monodromy extends over a handlebody. We approach the loop theorem via the study of planar coverings of a surface, as in the original paper of Papakyriakopoulos [11] and the subsequent work of Maskit [9]. w contains a simple geometric treatment of these matters. The main result of w is that a duality space actually satisfies duality with (twisted) coefficient module the quotient of the fundamental group ring by any power of the augmentation ideal. In w 4, the results of w167 2 and 3, together with an algebraic lemma on the intersection of the powers of the augmentation ideal of a group ring, are used to prove the loop theorem for 3-dimensional duality spaces. (For the reader's convenience a proof of the algebraic temma is included as an appendix.) w contains the application to fibred ribbon knots mentioned above. In w the result of w is used to obtain a limited amount of information on some questions about knots in the boundaries of contractible 4-manifolds. In w we apply our methods to another aspect of knot concordance, and show that for any concordance with a rationally anisotropic fibred knot (see [7]) at one end, the inclusion of the complement of the knot into the complement of the concordance induces an injection of fundamental groups. For torus knots, this question was raised by Scharlemann [14].