Alexander ideals of graphs in the 3-sphere (Q2266482)

This paper studies various properties of the elementary ideals of a graph P embedded in \(S^ 3\) associated with the abelianizer \(\pi_ 1(S^ 3- P)\to H_ 1(S^ 3-P)\), and gives necessary condition for the exterior of P to be retractible and boundary-retractible in terms of the elementary ideals. The efficacy of the condition is illustrated by examples; they include simple proof of results of \textit{W. Jaco} and \textit{D. R. McMillan} jun. [Ill. J. Math. 14, 150-158 (1970; Zbl 0198.564)] and \textit{H. W. Lambert} [ibid. 13, 606-615 (1969; Zbl 0175.206)].