Links with splitting number one (Q2230973)

Another of this author's exhaustively well-reasoned works, this paper solves a number of difficult problems for hyperbolic 2-string prime links with more than two components (or just two with linking number zero), answering the question of whether or not any of the following is equal to 1: its unlinking number, splitting number, ``distinct'' splitting number, total splitting number, or ``distinct'' total splitting number [Theorem 1]. Sixteen more theorems then outline algorithms that describe the various ways to accomplish such splittings and the paper concludes with a conjecture that ``any crossing change that turns an alternating link into a split link is equivalent to changing some crossing in some alternating diagram'', mentioning a recent result of \textit{D. McCoy} [Adv. Math. 305, 757--802 (2017; Zbl 1353.57013)] that ``lends weight to'' such a conjecture.