On the virtual cosmetic surgery conjecture (Q1796325)

Roughly, a cosmetic surgery along a knot is a pair of distinct Dehn surgeries such that there exists a homeomorphism between the resulting manifolds, see [\textit{C. McA. Gordon}, Proc. Int. Congr. Math., Kyoto/Japan 1990, Vol. I, 631--642 (1991; Zbl 0743.57008)]. In this paper, its virtual version, in which ``a homeomorphism'' is replaced by ``a covering map'', is considered: Hyperbolic Virtual Cosmetic Surgery Conjecture: If \(p'/q' \not= p/q \in \mathbb{Q}\), then the resulting 3-manifold \(S^3_{p/q}(K)\) does not cover \(S^3_{p'/q'}(K)\) for a hyperbolic knot \(K\). This conjecture is false for torus knots. In the paper under review, a complete classification of virtual cosmetic surgeries along torus knots is obtained. In other words, covering maps between the resulting manifolds of distinct Dehn surgeries along torus knots are completely classified. The bulk of the paper is an analysis of covering maps between Seifert fibered spaces over the 2-sphere. The conjecture is also considered for some hyperbolic knots. It is shown that the conjecture is true for all hyperbolic knots with 8 or fewer crossings.