The Dehn surgery characterization of the trefoil and the figure eight knot (Q2336010)

For a given knot \(K\) in the \(3\)-sphere \(S^3\), we call \(p/q\) a characterizing slope for \(K\) if whenever the result of \(p/q\)-surgery on a knot \(K'\) in \(S^3\) is orientation preservingly homeomorphic to the result of \(p/q\)-surgery on \(K\), then \(K'\) is isotopic to \(K\). For the trivial knot \(K\), \textit{C. McA. Gordon} [Lect. Notes Math. 685, 1--60 (1978; Zbl 0386.57002)] conjectured that every nontrivial slope \(p/q\) \((\ne 1/0)\) is a characterizing slope. \textit{P. B. Kronheimer} et al. [Ann. Math. (2) 165, No. 2, 457--546 (2007; Zbl 1204.57038)] proved this conjecture in the positive using Seiberg-Witten monopoles. See [\textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó}, Geom. Topol. 8, 311--334 (2004; Zbl 1056.57020) and Algebr. Geom. Topol. 11, No. 1, 1--68 (2011; Zbl 1226.57044)] for alternative proofs using Heegaard Floer homology. In the paper under review, the authors establish that for the trefoil knot and the figure-eight knot, every nontrivial slope is a characterizing slope. The proof requires surgery formulas in Heegaard Floer homology and the characterization of genus one fibered knot in terms of their knot Floer homology due to [\textit{P. Ghiggini}, Am. J. Math. 130, No. 5, 1151--1169 (2008; Zbl 1149.57019)]. The main results in the paper under review were announced in the authors' preprint (by the same title) [\url{arXiv:math.GT/0604079}] and have been pioneering results in the study of characterizing slopes for knots. On this occasion let me collect some related recent results. Any torus knot \(T_{r, s}\) is known to have only finitely many non-characterizing slopes which are not integers [\textit{D. McCoy}, Commun. Anal. Geom. 28, No. 7, 1647--1682 (2020; Zbl 1468.57006)]. See also [\textit{Y. Ni} and \textit{X. Zhang}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 14, No. 3, 1249--1274 (2014; Zbl 1297.57019)]. On the other hand, \textit{K. L. Baker} and \textit{K. Motegi} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 18, No. 3, 1461--1480 (2018; Zbl 1422.57010)] demonstrated that there are infinitely many knots, including hyperbolic knots, with infinitely many non-characterising slopes. See also [\textit{T. Abe} and \textit{K. Tagami}, ``Knots with infinitely many non-characterizing slopes'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2003.07163}]. However, one may expect that every knot has infinitely many characterizing slopes. This expectation turned out to be true due to \textit{M. Lackenby} [Math. Ann. 374, No. 1--2, 429--446 (2019; Zbl 1421.57009)]. In particular, Lackenby showed that for a hyperbolic knot \(K\), any slope \(p/q\) is characterising for \(K\) provided that \(|q|\) is sufficiently large. Later \textit{D. McCoy} [Math. Res. Lett. 26, No. 5, 1517--1526 (2019; Zbl 1439.57023)] strengthened this result by showing that any hyperbolic knot can have only finitely many non-characterising slopes with \(|q|\ge 3\).