On the height of 2-component links (Q5903555)

In this addendum, we prove the converse of Theorem 4.5 in our earlier paper [(*) ibid. 19, 227-243 (1985; Zbl 0582.57004)]. The author is very grateful to T. Maeda for first pointing out the following Theorem A to him, and also to L. Traldi who proved Theorem A for the special case. Theorem A. Let \(\Delta\) (x,y) be the Alexander polynomial of a 2- component link L in S 3. Suppose that \(\Delta (-1,-1)\equiv 0(mod 2\quad n).\) Then \(h_ 2(L)\geq n\). By combining Theorem A with Theorem 4.5 in (*), we obtain the following: Corollary B. (1) If \(\Delta (-1,-1)=0\), then \(h_ 2(L)=\infty\). (2) Suppose that \(\Delta\) (-1,-1)\(\neq 0\). Write \(\Delta (-1,-1)=2\) nd, d being odd. Then \(h_ 2(L)=n\).