Counting alternating knots by genus (Q2574905)

The number of alternating knots of given genus \(g>1\) is investigated. It is shown that the number grows as a polynomial of degree \(6g-4\) in the crossing number. The main tool in the study is a certain group theoretic object called Wicks form. The relation between alternating knot diagrams, Wicks forms and Gauss diagrams was established in \textit{A. Stoimenow, V. Tchernov} and \textit{A. Vdovina} [Geom. Dedicata 95, 215--225 (2002; Zbl 1015.57001)], and it was shown that the notions of genus for all of these objects coincide. In the present paper, by deepening this relationship, the authors show that the above estimate \(6g-4\) is exact for \(g>1\), in particular, they identify the leading coefficient of the polynomial, which is described in terms of the number of special types of Wicks forms. As an unexpected consequence, an alternating knot of any genus (\(>1\)) is generically a special alternating knot.