On Jørgensen numbers and their analogs for groups of figure-eight orbifolds (Q486362)

For a nonelementary, two-generator, discrete subgroup \(\langle f,g\rangle\) of \(\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})\), the following properties hold: (1) \(|\text{tr}^2(f)-4|+|\text{tr}[f,g]-2|\geq 1\), (2) If \(\text{tr}[f,g]\neq 1\), then \(|\text{tr}^2(f)-2|+|\text{tr}[f,g]-1|\geq 1\), and (3) If \(\text{tr}^2(f)\neq 1\), then \(|\text{tr}^2(f)-1|+|\text{tr}[f,g]|\geq 1\), where \([f,g]\) denotes the commutator. (1) is due to \textit{T. Jørgensen} [Am. J. Math. 98, 739--749 (1976; Zbl 0336.30007)], while (2), (3) are due to \textit{D. Tan} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 106, No. 3, 763--770 (1989; Zbl 0673.20023)], and independently, \textit{F. W. Gehring} and \textit{G. J. Martin} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 21, No. 1, 57--63 (1989; Zbl 0689.30036)]. Discrete, nonelementary two-generator subgroups of \(\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) with generators satisfying equality in (1), (2) or (3) are called Jørgensen, Gehring-Martin-Tan (GMT), or Tan groups, respectively. The infima of the left-hand sides of (1), (2), (3) over all pairs of generators are the respective Jørgensen, GMT, or Tan numbers. \textit{H. Sato} [Bol. Soc. Mat. Mex., III. Ser. 10, 495--502 (2004; Zbl 1095.30036)], showed that the figure-eight knot group \(\pi_1(S^3\backslash F)\) is a Jørgensen group. Let \(F(n)\), for \(n\geq 4\), denote the orbifold with underlying space \(S^3\) and singular set the figure-eight knot with isotropy group \(\mathbb{Z}_n\). The authors show that the group of the figure-eight orbifold, \(\pi_1^{{\text{orb}}}(F(4))\) is a GMT group, and bound the Jørgensen numbers of \(\pi_1^{{\text{orb}}}(F(n))\). As a corollary, they show that these numbers approach one, the Jørgensen number of the figure-eight knot group as \(n\to\infty\). They also compute the GMT number of the figure-eight knot group to be three and provide bounds on the GMT numbers of \(\pi_1^{{\text{orb}}}(F(n))\). Lastly, they compute bounds on the Tan numbers of the figure-eight knot group and \(\pi_1^{{\text{orb}}}(F(n))\), and, in particular, show that the figure-eight knot group is not a Tan group.