The 27 possible intrinsic symmetry groups of two-component links (Q350586)

Summary: We consider the ``intrinsic'' symmetry group of a two-component link \(L\), defined to be the image \(\Sigma(L)\) of the natural homomorphism from the standard symmetry group \(\mathrm{MCG}(S^3,L)\) to the product \(\mathrm{MCG}(S^3)\times\mathrm{MCG}(L)\). This group, first defined by \textit{W. C. Whitten jun.} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 135, 213--222 (1969; Zbl 0176.22103)], records directly whether \(L\) is isotopic to a link \(L^\prime\) obtained from \(L\) by permuting components or reversing orientations; it is a subgroup of \(\Gamma_2\), the group of all such operations. For two-component links, we catalog the 27 possible intrinsic symmetry groups, which represent the subgroups of \(\Gamma_2\) up to conjugacy. We are able to provide prime, nonsplit examples for 21 of these groups; some are classically known, some are new. We catalog the frequency at which each group appears among all 77,036 of the hyperbolic two-component links of 14 or fewer crossings in Thistlethwaite's table. We also provide some new information about symmetry groups of the 293 non-hyperbolic two-component links of 14 or fewer crossings in the table.