Tunnel-number-one knot exteriors in \(S^3\) disjoint from proper power curves (Q2077137)

Consider a genus \(2\) Heegaard splitting of \(\mathbb{S}^3\), and a simple closed curve lying on the surface. The curve is called primitive/primitive if it is primitive in each of the handlebodies (that is, adding a \(2\)-handle to each handlebody along the curve yields a solid torus). In this case the curve is a Berge knot, and has a lens space surgery. Such knots have tunnel number one, and it is known that these are the only tunnel-number-one knots in \(\mathbb{S}^3\) that admit lens space surgeries. A generalisation of such knots are those that are primitive/Seifert. That is, rather than the Heegaard splitting and the knot giving rise to two solid tori, they instead give rise to one solid torus and one Seifert-fibred space. The knot in \(\mathbb{S}^3\) therefore has a surgery that produces a Seifert-fibred space. The knots of this form again have tunnel number one, but it is not known whether all tunnel-number-one knots with Seifert-fibred surgeries are of this form. The author states that this paper contributes to a program of Berge to classify all hyperbolic primitive/Seifert knots. Specifically, it studies pairs of disjoint, non-separating simple closed curves \(R\) and \(\beta\) on the boundary of a genus \(2\) handlebody. The curve \(R\) is required to be such that adding a \(2\)-handle along it gives a manifold that embeds into \(\mathbb{S}^3\) (and so is the exterior of a tunnel-number-one knot \(k\)). Meanwhile, the curve \(\beta\) is required to represent a proper power of a non-trivial element of the fundamental group of the handlebody. Along with more technical results, the paper shows that, given \(R\), there exists such a curve \(\beta\) if and only if \(k\) is the unknot, a torus knot, or a tunnel-number-one cable of a torus knot. The paper uses three types of diagrams to record curves on a genus \(2\) surface: Heegaard diagrams, R-R diagrams, and hybrid diagrams (which combine features of the previous two types). Possible meridian curves are identified by locating `waves' in an R-R diagram, and the `culling lemma' is used to reduce the number of candidate meridians.