Fibered simple knots (Q2172223)

Take two standard solid tori, and glue them together along their boundary tori to give a closed \(3\)-manifold. The resulting manifold can be identified using a pair of co-prime integers \(p\) and \(q\) that describe the gluing map. If it is not \(\mathbb{S}^3\) or \(\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^1\) then the manifold is the \textit{lens space} \(L(p,q)\). Take a meridian disc in each solid torus such that their boundaries intersect minimally, and form a knot in the lens space as the union of two arcs, one contained in each meridian disc. Such knots are called \textit{simple} knots, and there is exactly one simple knot in each non-trivial first homology class. A knot in a \(3\)-manifold is \textit{fibered} if the knot exterior fibers over the circle. In the context of the Berge conjecture, it is of interest to identify which simple knots in lens spaces are fibered. This paper completely answers that question, by comparing the order of the homology class of the knot with the sequence of remainders obtained when applying the Euclidean algorithm to the pair \((p,q)\). The authors note that, in this paper, ``the methods are direct, combinatorial, and geometric''. A simple knot in a lens space gives rise to a sequence of non-negative integers that is linked to the Alexander polynomial of the knot. This can be understood geometrically by constructing a \textit{domain} for the knot, a \(2\)-chain within the Heegaard torus used to form the lens space, and this is used to prove the main result. From this domain, the authors also build a branched surface in the knot exterior, and a rational Seifert surface for the knot that is carried by the branched surface. It is shown that this Seifert surface is taut.