Unknotting genus one knots (Q633006)

In general, it remains still open to determine algorithmically whether a given knot in the 3-sphere has unknotting number one or not, and furthermore, to find algorithmically the positions where unknotting operations should be performed to unknot it. For the knots of genus one, \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{A. Thompson} [Comment. Math. Helv. 64, No. 4, 527--535 (1989; Zbl 0693.57004)] gave a characterization of the knots of unknotting number one: a genus one knot has unknotting number one if and only if it is a doubled knot. In the paper under review, it is shown (in Theorem 1.1) that an unknotting number one, genus one knot in the 3-sphere admits precisely one way to unknot it when the knot is not the figure-eight knot. For the figure-eight knot, it is shown that there are precisely two ways to unknot it. Moreover the unknotting positions for such knots are explicitly described. The starting point of the proof of the theorem is the following result by Scharlemann and Thompson: If a knot has unknotting number one, then the knot admits a minimal genus Seifert surface obtained by plumbing a Hopf band and another surface. The authors first translate the existence of such a plumbing into the existence of certain disks in the exterior of the genus one Seifert surface. This, together with the uniqueness of such a minimal genus Seifert surface for a doubled knot, gives the proof of the theorem for non-fibered knots. For the fibered case, the knot is either the trefoil or the figure-eight knot; in these cases, the authors again give a correspondence between the existence of such disks and the existence of some arcs on the fiber surface with certain nice properties with respect to the monodromy of the fibration. Then, the proof of the theorem is completed by analyzing the arc complex on the once-punctured torus and the action of the self-homeomorphism on the surface, which is of interest independently.