On the height of 2-component links (Q5966444)

Let L be a link of two components, X and Y, in \(S^ 3\); and let p be a prime. The author defines the p-height of L with respect to X, \(h_ p(L;X)\), to be the supremum of the integers n such that \(S^ 3\) admits a tower of n successive p-fold branched coverings, the first branched along X, the next branched along a component of the preimage of Y under the first, etc. Representations of the group of L corresponding to such towers of coverings are explicitly described. In the special case \(p=2\), upper and lower bounds for \(h_ 2(L;X)=h_ 2(L;Y)\) can be obtained from the Alexander polynomial; in particular, \(h_ 2(L)=\infty\) if and only if L has determinant zero.