Computing closed essential surfaces in knot complements

DOI10.1145/2462356.2462380MaRDI QIDQ5174501zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Alexander Coward, Stephan Tillmann, Benjamin A. Burton

Publication date 17 February 2015

Published in Proceedings of the twenty-ninth annual symposium on Computational geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1531

zbMATH Keywords

computational topologyessential surfaceincompressible surfaceknot theorynormal surface

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Computer graphics; computational geometry (digital and algorithmic aspects) (68U05)

Abstract: We present a new, practical algorithm to test whether a knot complement contains a closed essential surface. This property has important theoretical and algorithmic consequences; however, systematically testing it has until now been infeasibly slow, and current techniques only apply to specific families of knots. As a testament to its practicality, we run the algorithm over a comprehensive body of 2979 knots, including the two 20-crossing dodecahedral knots, yielding results that were not previously known. The algorithm derives from the original Jaco-Oertel framework, involves both enumeration and optimisation procedures, and combines several techniques from normal surface theory. This represents substantial progress in the practical implementation of normal surface theory, in that we can systematically solve a theoretically double exponential-time problem for significant inputs. Our methods are relevant for other difficult computational problems in 3-manifold theory, ranging from testing for Haken-ness to the recognition problem for knots, links and 3-manifolds.

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Cited in

(14)

• Counting essential surfaces in \(3\)-manifolds
• Knot complements, hidden symmetries and reflection orbifolds
• Computing Immersed Normal Surfaces in the Figure-Eight Knot Complement
• Normal and Jones surfaces of knots
• Essential normal and spun normal surfaces in 3-manifolds
• On closed incompressible meridionally incompressible surfaces in knot and link complements
• Knots and surfaces
• Ideal points of character varieties, algebraic non-integral representations, and undetected closed essential surfaces in 3–manifolds
• Infinitely Many Knots With NonIntegral Trace
• Complete embeddings of groups
• Crushing surfaces of positive genus
• A unified Casson-Lin invariant for the real forms of \(\operatorname{SL}(2)\)
• Computing closed essential surfaces in 3-manifolds
• A new approach to crushing 3-manifold triangulations

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

• SnapPy
• KnotInfo

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