On multiply twisted knots that are Seifert fibered or toroidal (Q626500)

In the paper under review, the geometric properties of knots and links with diagrams with a high amount of twisting of multiple strands are investigated. This extends the author's work given in a series of papers [``Volumes of highly twisted knots and links'', Algebr. Geom. Topol. 7, 93--108 (2007; Zbl 1135.57005); ``Slope length and generalized augmented links'', Commun. Anal. Geom. 16, No. 4, 883--905 (2008; Zbl 1171.57009); ``Hyperbolic geometry of multiply twisted knots'', ibid. 18, No. 1, 101--120 (2010; Zbl 1213.57016); ``An introduction to fully augmented links'', Contemporary Mathematics 541, 205--220 (2011; Zbl 1236.57006)]. Let \(D\) be a diagram of a knot \(K\). Informally, a generalized twist region in \(D\) is a region where multiple strands twist about each other maximally. In \(D\) each crossing is contained in one generalized twist region. A generalized augmented link is obtained from a diagram of a knot or link by inserting simple closed curves encircling each twist region of the diagram. (The exact technical terms of these definitions are too involved to repeat here.) In this paper the author classifies those generalized augmented links whose knot complements are Seifert fibered and the author gives a torus decomposition for those that are toroidal. The main result of the paper (Theorem 6.4) assumes that \(K\) has an embedded essential torus in its complement as well as a twist-reduced diagram \(D\) with at least six half-twists in each generalized twist region. Let \(L\) be the corresponding augmentation. The theorem asserts that there is a sublink \(L'\) of \(L\), containing possibly fewer crossing circles, such that: (1) The essential tori of the JSJ decomposition of \(S^3-K\) are in one-to-one correspondence with those of \(S^3-L'\). (2) Corresponding components of the torus decompositions have the same geometric type (i.e., hyperbolic or Seifert fibered). (3) Essential tori of \(S^3-L'\) and \(S^3-K\) form a collection of nested tori, each bounding a solid torus in \(S^3\) that contains \(K\) and that is fixed under a reflection of \(S^3-L\). Finally, the author proves that if each generalized region contains at least seven half-twists, then the Gromov norm of \(S^3-K\) is at least \(0.65721(t-1)\), where \(t\) is the number of crossing circles of \(L'\).