On the classification of rational knots (Q1884063)

A rational knot or link (also called a 2-bridge knot or link, 4-plat or Viergeflecht) is obtained by joining together vertical or horizontal pairs of twisted strands in various simple ways (side by side, vertical stacking, etc.) to form a rational tangle, then taking a closure. Each such rational tangle determines a fraction, and each closure determines a continued fraction. The main theorems in this paper, due originally to Conway and Schubert, respectively, are that rational tangles are classified up to isotopy by their fractions, and rational knots and links are classified by the arithmetic equivalence classes of their fractions. In this paper, new combinatorial proofs of these two results are given, along with results on mirror images of rational knots, connectivity, oriented rational knots and links, and strongly invertible links (oriented links isotopic to themselves with one component reversed).