Height, trunk and representativity of knots (Q2302620)

When studying knots embedded in \(S^3\), it is common to consider embeddings that lay transverse to the level sets of a height function \(h\colon S^3\to\mathbb{R}\) with the exception of finitely many non-transverse intersections. Such level spheres with non-transverse intersections with the knot are called ``critical'' (corresponding to maxima and minima of the knot relative to \(h\)), and representative level spheres between critical level spheres are called ``regular''. Minimizing the number of strands of a knot among all regular levels of the embedding restricts the behavior of properly embedded surfaces in the knot's complement. Using various notions of what it means to minimize the knot's strands in each regular level leads to different restrictions in the knot complement. Such minimizing embeddings fall under the umbrella term of ``thin position''. In this article, Blair and Ozawa present results about several known invariants of knots in \(S^3\) related to various thin positions for knots. This is now one more of several similar survey articles of Ozawa's (see article's references), and it serves to collect a trove of known results spread across many authors into one location. In addition to bringing these results together, the authors provide: (1) the first counterexamples to additivity of height under connected sums, (2) an upper bound of the representativity of a knot via the trunks of the tangles in its essential tangle decomposition, and (3) a discussion comparing and contrasting Gabai's thin position with the lesser known minimal critical position and ordered thin position. Miscellaneous results also include a potential example showing a gap between height and minimal height of a knot as well as an example of a knot bounding an essential non-orientable spanning surface but with arbitrarily large representativity. This reads much like a survey article, but it also contains important stepping-stone results that further the understanding of some lesser-known invariants related to different thin positions of knots in \(S^3\). The new results and counterexamples provided will surely spawn more and could very well be a proving ground for even more surprising results. Easily accessible to experts and novices alike, this article provides a wealth of inspiration for potential new results and counterexamples.