Geometric types of twisted knots (Q2469439)

A knot in \(S^3\) is a twisted knot if it is obtained from a trivial knot \(K\) by \(n\) twistings along a disk \(\Delta\) which intersects \(K\) transversely in at least two points, minimal up to isotopies of \(K\) in \(S^3 - \partial \Delta\). Denote the twisted knot by \(K_{\Delta,n}\), and the twisting pair by \((K,\Delta)\). As it is well known, every knot is one of the three types: torus, satellite, or hyperbolic. On the other hand, for a trivial knot \(K\) in \(S^3\), the manifold \(S^3 - \overset {\circ}{N}(K \cup \partial \Delta)\) is irreducible and \(\partial\)-irreducible, and hence is one of the three types : Seifert fiberted, toroidal, or hyperbolic; we call these the types of the twisting pair \((K, \Delta)\). The problem which the authors want to solve is to describe the types of twisted knots with repect to the types of twisting pairs and twisting numbers. It is shown in this paper that if \((K, \Delta)\) is a twisting pair with twisting number \(|n| > 1\), then the resulting twisted knot \(K_{\Delta,n}\) has the same type as \((K,\Delta)\). This result follows by showing that (1) if the twisting pair \((K,\Delta)\) is hyperbolic and \(K_{\Delta,n}\) is a satellite knot for some \(|n| \geq 2 \), then \(K_{\Delta,n}\) is a cable of torus knot and \(n=2\), (2) if \((K,\Delta)\) is Seifert fibered, then \(K_{\Delta,n}\) is a torus knot for every \(n\), and (3) if \((K,\Delta)\) is toroidal, then \(K_{\Delta,n}\) is a satellite knot for \(|n| > 1\). The proof of the hyperbolic case is the main part of this paper, which employs intersection graphs of a meridian disk of the solid torus \(S^3 - \overset {\circ}{N}(K)\) and an essential torus in \(S^3 - K_{\Delta,n}\), a Gordon-Litherland-Luecke type argument. In fact as the authors point out in the paper, the hyperbolic case can be deduced from a more general result established earlier by Gordon and Luecke. Examples of producing torus or satellite knot \(K_{\Delta,\pm 1}\) from a hyperbolic pair \((K,\Delta)\) are given; and in the case of a toroidal pair, it is shown that \(K_{\Delta,\pm 1}\) can be any of the three types depending on the position of \(K\) with respect to an essential torus lying in \(S^3 - \overset {\circ}{N}(K \cup \partial \Delta)\).