A characterisation of alternating knot exteriors (Q2356966)

What is an alternating knot? The standard definition uses planar diagrams for knots in the three-sphere. A knot diagram is alternating if the crossings alternate over and under along the knot. A knot is alternating if it has an alternating diagram. The opening question, as attributed to Ralph Fox, can be interpreted as requesting a characterisation of alternating knots that is independent of diagrams. The significance of this request stems from the many special properties of alternating knots. Two independent answers to the opening question were given in 2015 -- one in the paper under review and the other one in [\textit{J. Greene}, Duke Math. J. 166, No. 11, 2133--2151 (2017; Zbl 1377.57009)]. Both answers focus on the special spanning surfaces for an alternating knot, the so-called checkerboard surfaces. The characterisation given in the paper under review is as follows: Theorem. Let \(K\) be a nontrivial knot in \(S^3\) with exterior \(X\). Then \(K\) is alternating if and only if there exists a pair of connected spanning surfaces \(\Sigma\), \(\Sigma'\) in \(X\) which satisfy \[ \chi(\Sigma) + \chi(\Sigma') + \frac{1}{2} \iota (\partial \Sigma, \partial \Sigma') =2, \] where \(\iota (\partial \Sigma, \partial \Sigma') \) is the minimal geometric intersection number of the boundary curves on the boundary of \(X.\) The paper under review is very well written and concludes with a normal surface algorithm to decide whether a knot in the three-sphere is alternating.