86 research outputs found
Twisted Alexander polynomials of 2-bridge knots
We investigate the twisted Alexander polynomial of a 2-bridge knot associated
to a Fox coloring. For several families of 2-bridge knots, including but not
limited to, torus knots and genus-one knots, we derive formulae for these
twisted Alexander polynomials. We use these formulae to confirm a conjecture of
Hirasawa and Murasugi for these knots.Comment: 29 pages, 2 figure
Commensurability classes of twist knots
In this paper we prove that if is the complement of a non-fibered twist
knot in , then is not commensurable to a fibered knot
complement in a -homology sphere. To prove this result
we derive a recursive description of the character variety of twist knots and
then prove that a commensurability criterion developed by D. Calegari and N.
Dunfield is satisfied for these varieties. In addition, we partially extend our
results to a second infinite family of 2-bridge knots.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Involutory quandles of (2,2,r)-Montesinos links
In this paper we show that Montesinos links of the form L(1/2, 1/2, p/q;e),
which we call (2,2,r)-Montesinos links, have finite involutory quandles. This
generalizes an observation of Winker regarding the (2, 2, q)-pretzel links. We
also describe some properties of these quandles.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Epimorphisms and Boundary Slopes of 2-Bridge Knots
In this article we study a partial ordering on knots in the 3-sphere where
K_1 is greater than or equal to K_2 if there is an epimorphism from the knot
group of K_1 onto the knot group of K_2 which preserves peripheral structure.
If K_1 is a 2-bridge knot and K_1 > K_2, then it is known that K_2 must also be
2-bridge. Furthermore, Ohtsuki, Riley, and Sakuma give a construction which,
for a given 2-bridge knot K_{p/q}, produces infinitely 2-bridge knots K_{p'/q'}
with K_{p'/q'}>K_{p/q}. After characterizing all 2-bridge knots with 4 or less
distinct boundary slopes, we use this to prove that in any such pair, K_{p'/q'}
is either a torus knot or has 5 or more distinct boundary slopes. We also prove
that 2-bridge knots with exactly 3 distinct boundary slopes are minimal with
respect to the partial ordering. This result provides some evidence for the
conjecture that all pairs of 2-bridge knots with K_{p'/q'}>K_{p/q} arise from
the Ohtsuki-Riley-Sakuma construction.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure
Boundary slopes of 2-bridge links determine the crossing number
A diagonal surface in a link exterior M is a properly embedded,
incompressible, boundary incompressible surface which furthermore has the same
number of boundary components and same slope on each component of the boundary
of M. We derive a formula for the boundary slope of a diagonal surface in the
exterior of a 2-bridge link which is analogous to the formula for the boundary
slope of a 2-bridge knot found by Hatcher and Thurston. Using this formula we
show that the diameter of a 2-bridge link, that is, the difference between the
smallest and largest finite slopes of diagonal surfaces, is equal to the
crossing number.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Involutory quandles of (2,2,r)-Montesinos links
In this paper we show that Montesinos links of the form L(1/2, 1/2, p/q;e), which we call (2,2,r)-Montesinos links, have finite involutory quandles. This generalizes an observation of Winker regarding the (2, 2, q)-pretzel links. We also describe some properties of these quandles
Links with finite n-quandles
We prove a conjecture of Przytycki which asserts that the n-quandle of a link L in the 3-sphere is finite if and only if the fundamental group of the n-fold cyclic branched cover of the 3-sphere, branched over L, is finite
- β¦