Vanishing nontrivial elements in a knot group by Dehn fillings (Q2315312)

Let \(K\) be a nontrivial knot in \(S^3\). The knot group of \(K\) is denoted by \(G(K)\). This is defined as the fundamental group of the knot complement of \(K\) in \(S^3\), \[\pi_1(S^3 \setminus K).\] An isotopy class of unoriented simple closed curves in \(\partial (S^3 \setminus K)\) is called a slope on \(K\), which is identified with \(r \in \mathbb{Q} \cup \{1/0\}\) using a standard meridian-longitude of \(K\). \(K(r)\) is the \(3\)-manifold obtained by Dehn filling of \(S^3 \setminus K\) along such a slope \(r\). For \(r = 1/0\), the knot group of \(K(r)\) is trivial (\(\pi_1(K(r)) = \{1\}\)). In general however it is difficult to determine if for a given \(r \in \mathbb{Q}\) and a nontrivial element \(g \in G(K)\), \(g\) is trivialized by an \(r\)-Dehn filling. The main results of the article under review are as follows: ``(1) Let \(K\) be a hyperbolic knot. Then for each nontrivial element \(g \in G(K)\), there are only finitely many Dehn fillings of \(S^3 \setminus K\) which trivialize \(g\). (2) Let \(K\) be a nontrivial torus knot. Then there are infinitely many nontrivial elements \(g \in G(K)\) which can be trivialized by infinitely many Dehn fillings of \(E(K)\).'' This asserts that for any infinite family of slopes \(\{r_1,r_2,\ldots\}\) on a hyperbolic knot, no nontrivial element can be trivialized by \(r_i\)-Dehn fillings for all \(i \geq 1\). However it is noted that for any finite family of slopes \(\{r_1,\ldots,r_N\}\) on \(K\) there are infinitely many elements in \(G(K)\) which can be trivialized by \(r_i\)-Dehn fillings for each \(i\). This is a result from [\textit{T. Ito} et al., ``Nontrivial elements in a knot group which are trivialized by Dehn fillings'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1705.04470}, to appear in Int. Math. Res. Not.]. In the other direction a further theorem is proven which states that: ``For any nontrivial knot \(K\), there are infinitely many elements \(g \in G(K)\) which remain non-trivial after any nontrivial Dehn filling of \(S^3 \setminus K\).'' In conclusion the following corollary is stated which combines the results: ``(1) Let \(K\) be a hyperbolic knot in \(S^3\). Then for any infinite family of slopes \(\{r_1,r_2,\ldots\}\), we have \(\bigcap_{i=1}^\infty \langle \langle r_i \rangle \rangle = \{1\}\). (2) Let \(K\) be a hyperbolic knot and let \(\{r_1,\ldots,r_n\}\) be any finite family of slopes. Then \(\bigcap_{i = 1}^n \langle \langle r_i \rangle \rangle \neq \{1\}\). (3) Let \(K\) be a nontrivial knot in \(S^3\). Then \(G(K) - \bigcup_{r \in \mathbb{Q}} \langle \langle r \rangle \rangle\) contains infinitely many elements.''