Invariants for Turaev genus one links (Q1721749)

Understating by two the number of prime knots through 12 crossings with thitherto unknown Turaev genus, this paper reduces it by almost a third, thus commencing what may well be the final lap in the race to the finish of this particular problem. It does so by providing a computable obstruction to genus one -- to wit, that ``either the leading or trailing coefficient of the Jones polynomial of a Turaev genus one link (or an almost alternating link) has absolute value one'' [Theorem 1.3]. It also proves that ``the signature of a Turaev genus one knot is determined by the number of components in its all-\(A\) Kauffman state, the number of positive crossings, and its determinant'' [Theorem 1.1]. Included is an informative history of the utility of the Jones polynomial in proving, for example, what has come to be known as the first Tait conjecture: that an alternating link that looks reduced is reduced.