Circular thin position for knots in \(S^{3}\) (Q1007219)

A \textit{regular} circle-valued Morse function on the knot complement \(C_K = S^3 \setminus K\) is a function \(f : C_K \rightarrow S^1\) which behaves nicely in a neighborhood of the knot. Such a function induces a handle decomposition on the knot exterior \(E(K) = S^3 \setminus N(K)\), with the property that every regular level surface contains a Seifert surface of the knot. Analogous to \textit{D. Gabai} [J. Differ. Geom. 26, 479--536 (1987; Zbl 0639.57008)] and \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{A. Thompson} [Geometric topology. Joint US-Israel workshop on geometric topology, June 10--16, 1992, Technion, Haifa, Israel. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. Contemp. Math. 164, 231--238 (1994; Zbl 0818.57013)], the author introduces the \textit{circular width} and the \textit{circular thin position} of the knot exterior. The author uses this to show that many knots have more than one nonisotopic incompressible Seifert surface. Furthermore, the author analyzes the behavior of the circular width under some knot operations.