A natural framing of knots (Q1383293)

An invariant of a knot \(K\) in the 3-sphere is defined in the following way. Considering singular disks bounding \(K\) and transverse to \(K\) in the interior (``compressing disks''), the framing function \(n_K:\mathbb{Z} \to\mathbb{N}\) of the knot is defined as the absolute number of intersections (i.e. not considering signs) of \(K\) with the interior of such a disk, minimized over all compressing disks with a fixed algebraic number of intersections (considering signs). It is shown that the framing function is symmetric, except at a finite number of points, around some point in \(\mathbb{Z}\); this integer is then called the natural framing of the knot. ``The aim of this paper is to determine the natural framing of certain classes of knots, and to study its properties and relations with other knot invariants.'' In particular, it turns out that the natural framing shares some properties with the signature of the knot. One of the main results of the paper says that the natural framing of the \((p,q)\)-torus knot is \(-(p-1) (q-1)\). The paper ends with some interesting open problems and a list describing the situation for all knots up to seven crossings.