On the 1-bridge genus of small knots (Q1580369)

A Heegaard splitting of genus \(g\) for the standard 3-sphere \(\mathbb{S}^3\) is a closed surface \(\Sigma\) of genus \(g\) in \(\mathbb{S}^3\) separating the 3-sphere into two (homeomorphic) handlebodies \(\Sigma^+\) and \(\Sigma^-\) of genus \(g\) such that \(\Sigma^+\cup \Sigma^-=\mathbb{S}^3\) and \(\Sigma^+\cap \Sigma^-=\Sigma\). Given a knot \(K\subset\mathbb{S}^3\), a 1-bridge presentation of genus \(g\) for \(K\) is a Heegaard splitting \(\Sigma\) of genus \(g\) of \(\mathbb{S}^3\) which meets \(K\) exactly in two points such that the arcs \(K\smallsetminus(K\cap\Sigma)\) are trivial in each handlebody \(\Sigma^\pm\) in the following sense: together with two arcs of \(\Sigma\), these arcs form the boundary of a disk in each handlebody. The minimal \(g\) for which the knot \(K\subset\mathbb{S}^3\) has a 1-bridge presentation of genus \(g\) is called the 1-bridge genus of \(K\), denoted by \(g_1(K)\). The author studies the behaviour of this invariant under the connected sum of knots. More precisely, he proves that for small knots \(K_1\) and \(K_2\) (i.e. knots which do not have closed essential surfaces in their exteriors) in the standard 3-sphere, the following inequalities hold: \(g_1(K_1)+ g_1(K_2)-1\leq g_1(K_1\#K_2)\leq g_1(K_1) +g_1(K_2)\).