Cusp volumes of alternating knots on surfaces (Q2092766)

In this paper, the author studies cusp volumes of weakly generalized alternating knots (with respect to embedded subsurfaces) in closed orientable \(3\)-manifolds. Under mild hypotheses, the author gives two-side bounds of the cusp volume of weakly generalized alternating knots, in terms of the twist number of the alternating projection and the genus of the projection surface. Alternating knots in \(S^3\) form a special and interesting family of knots, since they have nice diagrammatic and geometric properties. Any alternating knot in \(S^3\) other than a torus knot is hyperbolic, so many works have been done for relating the diagrammatic and geometric information. For alternating knots in \(S^3\), in works of \textit{M. Lackenby} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 88, No. 1, 204--224 (2004; Zbl 1041.57002)] and \textit{M. Lackenby} and \textit{J. S. Purcell} [Geom. Topol. 20, No. 4, 2053--2078 (2016; Zbl 1378.57011)], the authors gave two-side bounds of volumes and cusp volumes respectively, in terms of twist numbers of alternating projections. Besides other previous works, \textit{J. A. Howie} and \textit{J. S. Purcell} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 373, No. 4, 2349--2397 (2020; Zbl 1441.57007)] generalized the concept of classical alternating knots in \(S^3\) to weakly generalized alternating knots (with respect to an embedded subsurface) in general \(3\)-manifolds, and gave a lower bound of the volume of knot complements. Under mild hypotheses, the present author gives two-side bounds of the cusp volume of a weakly generalized alternating knot \(K\subset Y\) (Theorem 1.1). Then he applies this result to study slope lengths on the maximal cusp (Corollary 1.4), Dehn fillings of weakly generalized alternating knots (Theorem 1.6) and cusp density of weakly generalized alternating knots in \(S^3\) (Corollary 1.7). To prove Theorem 1.1, the upper bound of the cusp volume is relatively easy to prove, while the proof of the lower bound is more complicated. To establish the lower bound, the author first constructs two immersed subsurfaces \(S_{B,2},S_{R,2}\to Y\setminus K\), obtained by modifying the checkerboard surfaces of the alternative projection. Then he constructs a large number of disjoint, non-homotopic, essential arcs in \(S_{B,2}\cup S_{R,2}\) that have bounded length with respect to the maximal cusp of \(Y\setminus K\). The author proves that the number of distinct essential arcs in \(S_{B,2}\cup S_{R,2}\) that have homotopic images in \(Y\setminus K\) is universally bounded. So there are still many non-homotopic essential arcs in \(Y\setminus K\) that have bounded length with respect to the maximal cusp, which gives the lower bound of the cusp volume. The technical heart of this paper consists of Theorem 2.7 and Theorem 3.4, and their proofs (mainly the proof of Theorem 2.7) occupy Sections 4--7. Theorem 2.7 states that the immersions \(S_{B,2},S_{R,2} \to Y\setminus K\) are both \(\pi_1\)-injective. Theorem 3.4 states that any two non-homotopic essential arcs in \(S_{B,2}\) that have homotopic images in \(Y\setminus K\) lie in the same cross region of \(S_{B,2}\), and the same for \(S_{R,2}\).