Meridional rank of knots whose exterior is a graph manifold (Q2401580)

Let \(K\) be a knot in \(S^3\), \(G(K)\) its knot group and let \(b(K)\) denote the bridge number of \(K\). It is known that \(G(K)\) is generated by \(b(K)\) conjugates of a standard meridian \(m\) of \(K\) (called also the meridians of \(K\)). The meridional rank \(w(K)\) of \(K\) is the smallest number of conjugates of the meridian \(m\) that generate the knot group. The inequality \(w(K)\leq b(K)\) always holds. S. Capell and J. Shaneson asked [\textit{R. Kirby} (ed.), ``Problems in low-dimensional topology'', AMS/IP Stud. Adv. Math. 2, 35--473 (1997; Zbl 0888.57014)] whether the opposite inequality holds for all knots. The equality holds for several large classes of knots, but to this time no counterexamples are known. A subgroup \(U\subseteq G(K)\) is called meridional if it is generated by finitely many meridians of \(K\). The minimal number of meridians needed to generate \(U\) is called the meridional rank of \(U\) and is denoted \(w(U)\). Therefore the knot group \(G(K)\) is meridional and, by definition, its meridional rank is \(w(K)\). A meridional subgroup \(U\) with \(w(U)=l\) is called tame if for any \(g\in G(K)\) one of the following holds: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(gP(K)g^{-1}=1\); \item[(2)] \(gP(K)g^{-1} \cap U=g\langle m\rangle g^{-1}\) and there exist meridians \(m_2', \dots , m_l'\) of \(K\) such that \(U\) is generated by \(\{gmg^{-1},m_2', \dots , m_l'\}\), where \(P(K)\) denotes the peripheral subgroup of \(K\). \end{itemize}} A non-trivial knot \(K\) is called meridionally tame if any meridional subgroup \(U\subseteq G(K)\) generated by less than \(b(K)\) meridians is tame. The authors of the given paper introduce and study the class of knots \({\mathcal K}\) which is the smallest class that contains all meridionally tame knots and is closed under connected sums and satellites with braid pattern. The main result of the article is Theorem 1.3 which asserts that for all knots from \({\mathcal K}\) it holds that \(w(K)=b(K)\). Note that satellite knots are in general not meridionally tame. To give another description of knots from \({\mathcal K}\), the authors introduce some auxiliary objects, called labeled rooted trees. Given a labeled rooted tree \({\mathcal A}\), let \(VA\) denote the vertex set of its underlying oriented graph \(A\). Put \(V_0: = \{v\in VA\mid val_+(v,A)=0\}\). To each labeled rooted tree \({\mathcal A}\) there corresponds a knot \(K_{\mathcal A}\) given by a recursive construction. A knot \(K\) lies in \({\mathcal K}\) if and only if \(K=K_{\mathcal A}\) for some tree \({\mathcal A}\) and such that the label knot \(K_v\) is meridionally tame when \(v\in V_0\subset VA\). The construction implies that the knot space \(X(K_{\mathcal A})\) contains a collection \({\mathcal T}\) of incompressible tori corresponding to the edges of \({\mathcal A}\), so \(X(K_{\mathcal A})\) can be considered as a tree of spaces. An important consequence of Theorem 1.3 and the above mentioned construction is Corollary 1.4 which asserts that if the exterior \(X(K)\) of a knot \(K\) in \(S^3\) is a graph manifold, then \(w(K)= b(K)\).