Compressing thin spheres in the complement of a link (Q2502953)

\textit{A. Thompson} [Topology 36, 505--507 (1997; Zbl 0867.57009)] showed that if a link \(L\) in the 3-sphere is in thin position but not in bridge position, then by maximally compressing a thin sphere \(P\) one obtains a non-trivial, incompressible meridional planar surface. For any compressing disk \(D\) for \(S\), the paper under review defines the notion of alternating level sphere, which is a level surface above \(P\) such that the critical points of \(L\) directly above and below it are on the opposite side of \(D\). It is shown that all alternating level spheres are thin, and the widths of the alternating spheres for \(D\) are monotone decreasing. In particular, this allows the author to show that the thin level sphere of the second lowest width is weakly incompressible. Also, the notion of potentially alternating level sphere for a thin level sphere is introduced. This notion gives a bound on the number of irreducible compressing disks for a thin sphere in terms of its width.