Wirtinger systems of generators of knot groups (Q2186095)

In this article, the authors propose an innovative approach to calculate the bridge number of a link by proving that the latter is equal to what they defined as the Wirtinger number of a link. The equality can be seen as establishing a weak version of Cappell and Shaneson's Meridional Rank Conjecture, and leads ``to a combinatorial technique for obtaining strong upper bounds on bridge numbers''. As another application, the authors ``use the Wirtinger number to show that there is a universal constant \(C\) with the property that the hyperbolic volume of a prime alternating link \(L\) is bounded below by \(C\) times the bridge number of \(L\)''.