A proof of Tait's conjecture on prime alternating \(-\)achiral knots (Q2428956): Difference between revisions

A knot \(K\) is said to be \(-\)achiral if there is an orientation reversing diffeomorphism of \(\mathbb{S}^3\) that restricts to an orientation reversing map from \(K\) to itself. In this paper, the authors prove the following result which they refer to as `Tait's Conjecture on prime alternating \(-\)achiral knots'. Given a prime alternating \(-\)achiral knot \(K\), there is a reduced alternating diagram \(D\subset\mathbb{S}^2\) of \(K\) and an involution \(\phi\) of \(\mathbb{S}^3\) such that the following holds. The map \(\phi\) reverses the orientation of \(\mathbb{S}^3\) and of \(K\), and it fixes both \(\mathbb{S}^2\) and \(D\). In other words, for prime alternating \(-\)achiral knots, the \(-\)achirality can be seen in some alternating diagram. An idea of the proof is as follows. The Tait Flyping Conjecture, proved by \textit{W. Menasco} and \textit{M. Thistlethwaite} [``The classification of alternating links'', Ann. Math. (2) 138, No. 1, 113--171 (1993; Zbl 0809.57002)], says that any two reduced alternating diagrams of the same prime knot differ by a finite sequence of flypes and isotopies. A diagram of \(K\) can be decomposed along Conway/Haseman circles into `jewels' and `twisted band diagrams', such that all possible flypes on the diagram take place within the twisted band diagrams. The combinatorics of this decomposition can be recorded in a finite tree, and the \(-\)achirality of \(K\) gives an automorphism of this tree. The proof then splits into three cases according to where a fixed point of this automorphism lies on the tree.