Boring split links (Q1011643)

Attach an arc to a knot \(K\), forming a graph, and thicken the graph to form a genus 2 handlebody \(W\). We can compress \(W\) along a certain meridian disc \(\beta\) for \(W\), which means to delete the interior of a regular neighbourhood of \(\beta\). The original knot and the core \(L_{\beta}\) of the resulting handlebody, which can be a knot or a two-component link, are said to be related by boring. This operation is clearly symmetric, i.e. \(K=(L_{\beta})_{\alpha}\) for an appropriate meridian disc \(\alpha\) of \(W\). In fact, if we allow \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) to be disjoint in \(W\), any two knots in \(S^3\) can be related by boring, so attention is restricted to meridians of \(W\) that are not disjoint (even after isotopy). Boring generalizes several well-known operations in knot theory, included crossing changes, and more generally, rational tangle replacement (also the band move of the Kirby calculus is a type of boring), so it is natural to ask under what circumstances both links can be split, both the trivial knot, both composite, etc. The paper focuses on the exteriors \(M[\alpha]\) and \(M[\beta]\) of \(K=K_{\alpha}\) and \(K_{\beta}\) respectively (which are said to be obtained from the corresponding discs by refilling). \textit{M. Scharlemann} [in: The Zieschang Gedenkschrift. Coventry: Geometry \& Topology Publications. Geometry and Topology Monographs 14, 451--475 (2008; Zbl 1177.57019)] has conjectured that, under certain conditions, if these exteriors are both reducible or boundary reducible, then either \(W\) is an unknotted handlebody in \(S^3\) or the discs \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are positioned in a particularly nice way in \(W\). Scharlemann could prove this in some situations, for example, when one of the discs is separating. This paper comes back to this conjecture. In particular, it is proved that if \(S^3-\)int\((W)\) is irreducible and boundary irreducible, and the discs \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) cannot be isotoped to be disjoint, then at least one of \(M[\alpha]\) or \(M[\beta]\) is irreducible. Other results by \textit{M. Eudave-Muñoz} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 306, No. 2, 773--790 (1988; Zbl 0657.57003)] and Scharlemann on rational tangle replacement are generalized, obtaining as a consequence a new proof of Scharlemann's band sum theorem (a band sum produces the unknot only if it is simply a connected sum of unknots). The main tool in the paper is Scharlemann's combinatorial version of Gabai's sutured manifold theory, cf. \textit{M. Scharlemann} [J. Differ. Geom. 29, No. 3, 557--614 (1989; Zbl 0673.57015)].