Modifications preserving hyperbolicity of link complements (Q6112532)

By Thurston it is well known that a link in a closed, orientable 3-manifold has hyperbolic complement if and only if the exterior of the link contains no properly embedded essential disks, spheres, tori or annuli. In [Topology 23, 37--44 (1984; Zbl 0525.57003)], \textit{W. Menasco} proved that every non 2-braid prime alternating link in \(S^3\) is hyperbolic. In [Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 112, 115--130 (1986; Zbl 0632.57008)], \textit{C. C. Adams} extended this result to augmented alternating links, where additional nonparallel trivial components wrapping around two adjacent strands in the alternating projection were added to the link. In the paper under review, two moves are considered which can be performed on a link in a 3-manifold with hyperbolic complement, which preserve the hyperbolicity of the link. These moves are called the chain move and the switch move. For the chain move, start with a component of a hyperbolic link bounding a twice-punctured disk, such that a neighborhood of the disk is a 3-ball \(\mathcal{B}\), forming a tangle consisting of two spanning arcs plus a simple closed curve surrounding both arcs. Now replace this tangle with another tangle formed by the same arcs plus two components, each bounding a twice-punctured disk, interlinked between them and each one wrapping around one of the arcs, and such that the new components may have as many twists as desired. If the complement of the tangle \(\mathcal{B}\) is not a rational tangle in a 3-ball, then the resulting link is hyperbolic. For the switch move, start with a 3-manifold \(M\) and a link \(L\) with hyperbolic complement. Let \(\alpha\) be an embedded arc that runs from \(L\) to \(L\), that is isotopic to an embedded geodesic in its complement. The arc \(\alpha\) may run from a component of \(L\) to itself, or may join different components. Let \(\mathcal{B}\) be a 3-ball which is a neighborhood of \(\alpha\), intersecting \(L\) in a pair of arcs joined by \(\alpha\). Then replace these two arcs of \(L\) by two other arcs, like applying a band move using \(\alpha\), without twists, plus a new component surrounding both arcs, which bounds a twice punctured disk. The result is another link with hyperbolic complement. Starting with an alternating or augmented alternating link, which are hyperbolic by Menasco or Adams, and then applying these moves, it can be proved that many classes of links are hyperbolic. For example, starting with an alternating chain link of 4-components, then applying the chain move to one component of \(L\), and then repeating the operation, it is shown that any chain link with 5 or more components is hyperbolic.