Dehn surgeries, group actions and Seifert fiber spaces (Q2386772)

Let \(K\) be a knot in \(S^3\). Thurston showed that if \(K\) can not be isotoped to lie on a torus or satellite then \(S^3\setminus K\) admits a complete hyperbolic structure of finite volume; in that case we call \(k\) hyperbolic. Surgery on a knot is the process of attaching a solid torus to the closure of \(S^3\setminus N(K)\) (where \(N(\cdot)\) stands for a normal neighborhood). Thurston's Dehn surgery theorem states that all but finitely many surgeries on a hyperbolic knot yield hyperbolic manifolds; a slope not yielding a hyperbolic manifold is called exceptional. Exceptional slopes fall into four categories reducible (slopes yielding reducible manifolds), toroidal (slopes yielding toroidal manifolds), Seifert fiber (slopes yielding Seifert fiber spaces), and slopes yielding counterexamples to the geometrization conjecture. The four set of surgeries on \(K\) are denoted (in their respective order) \({\mathcal R}_K\), \({\mathcal T}_K\), \({\mathcal S}_K\), and \({\mathcal C}_K\). The purpose of the article under review is to give conditions on \(K\) that imply \({\mathcal T}_K\cap{\mathcal S}_K= 0\). This is equivalent to showing that \(K\) has no surgery yielding a toroidal Seifert fiber space. The orientation-preserving symmetry group of \(K\) (denoted \(\text{sym}^*(K)\)) is the group of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of \(S^3\) that leave \(K\) invariant, considered up to conjugation by a diffeomorphism that is isotopic to the identity. The author shows that if \(K\) is a hyperbolic knot with \(|\text{sym}^*(K)|> 2\) then \({\mathcal T}_K\cap{\mathcal S}_K=\emptyset\). The author also shows that if \(K\) admits a symmetry that is not a strong involution then no surgery on \(K\) is a Seifert fibered space over \(\mathbb{R} P^2\). Combining the results above and other known results, the author concludes that if \(M\) is a Seifert fiber space that is obtained by surgery on a hyperbolic knot \(K\) with \(|\text{Sym}^*(K)|> 2\), then the base orbifold of \(M\) is \(S^2\) with exactly \(3\) exceptional fibers. Considering non-hyperbolic knots \(K\), if \(K\) admits a symmetry which is not a strong involution and \(K\) admits a toroidal Seifert fiber surgery, then the author shows that \(K\) is a trefoil or a connected sum of certain torus knots, classifying the knots and the surgery slopes. As a corollary, the only \(2\)-bridge knot that admits a toroidal Seifert fiber surgery is the trefoil. Finally, the author shows that if a strongly invertible knot \(K\) that has cyclic period greater than \(2\) and admits a surgery yielding a Seifert fiber space over \(S^2\) with \(3\) exceptional fibers with multiplicities \(n_1 \leq n_2\leq n_3\) with all the \(n_i\)'s are distinct and greater than \(2\), then \(K\) is a torus knot or a cable of a torus knot. Similarly, if \(n_1=2\) and \(n_2\) and \(n_3\) are not relatively prime and not both \(3\), then \(K\) is a torus knot or a cable of a torus knot. This extends the results of the author and \textit{K. Miyazaki} from [Topology Appl. 121, No. 1--2, 275--285 (2002; Zbl 1004.57004) and Commun. Anal. Geom. 7, No. 3, 551--583 (1999; Zbl 0940.57025)].