Minimal genus of links and fibering of canonical surfaces (Q281496): Difference between revisions

This paper investigates the question of whether some, or all, almost positive or almost alternating diagrams have a canonical Seifert surface of minimal genus, proving with counterexamples that there are no happy answers -- e.g., ``Theorem 1.4. There exist almost positive knots with either none or all of their almost positive diagrams having minimal genus.'' Nonetheless, the author proves, as a sort of consolation prize, that the genus of almost positive split links is determined by the Alexander polynomial. A veritable textbook on the relationship between genus and the more algebraic invariants of knot theory, the paper contains an excellent survey of results previously proved by Crowell, Murasugi, Neuwirth, Stallings, Gabai, Bennequin, Adams, Przytycki, Taniyama, Hirasawa, Goda and Yamamoto, along with a comprehensive bibliography that could only be improved by replacing the reference to this reviewer's knot table (in a 1980 Orsay preprint) with a citation to its published version in [\textit{K. A. Perko jun.}, Topology, Proc. Conf., Vol. 7, No.1, Annapolis/Md. 1982, 109--118 (1982; Zbl 0522.57005)].