MPS-Ascend: Bi-Orderability, Fibered Knots, and Cyclic Branched Covers

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). PI Jonathan Johnson is awarded a National Science Foundation Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (NSF MPS-Ascend) to conduct a program of research and activities related to broaden participation by groups underrepresented in STEM. This fellowship to Dr. Johnson supports the research project entitled "MPS-Ascend: Bi-Orderability, Fibered Knots, and Cyclic Branched Covers", under the mentorship of a sponsoring scientist. The host institution for the fellowship is Oklahoma State University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Neil Hoffman. Motivated by the PI’s past research, this project includes a novel conjecture linking bi-orderability of fibered and two-bridge knot groups to the L-space conjecture conditions of the cyclic branched covers of the knots, a possible characterization of bi-orderability in terms of the Alexander polynomial of knots, and new methods of producing examples of bi-orderable 3-manifold groups. For broadening participation, the PI plans to create a Directed Reading Program at Oklahoma State University, with a focus on recruiting students from underrepresented groups, particularly the university's large Native American population. An additional contribution will be to create publicly accessible online videos covering a broad range of topics in low-dimensional topology, aimed at undergraduate students and early career mathematiciansThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.