The quandle coloring invariant of a reducible handlebody-knot (Q638754)

Recall that a genus \(g\) handlebody-knot [the first author, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 8, No. 3, 1403--1418 (2008; Zbl 1151.57007)] is a genus \(g\) handlebody embedded in the 3-sphere. Two handlebody-knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other by an isotopy of \(S^3\). A handlebody-knot \(H\) is reducible if there exists a 2-sphere in \(S^3\) such that the intersection of \(H\) and the 2-sphere is an essential disk properly embedded in \(H\). A handlebody-knot that is not reducible is irreducible. \textit{H. Moriuchi, M. Suzuki} and the authors [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 21, No. 4, 1250035, 9 p. (2012; Zbl 1236.57015)] gave a table of genus two handle body-knots up to six crossings, and classified them according to crossing number and irreducibility. In this paper, the authors provide the methods used to detect the irreducibility used to build the table. To establish their results, the authors use the quandle coloring invariant defined by the first author and \textit{M. Iwakiri} [Can. J. Math. 64, No. 1, 102--122 (2012; Zbl 1245.57014)]. In the final section, the authors use their results to show two particular genus 2 handlebody-knots are irreducible.