Some sufficient conditions for tunnel numbers of connected sum of two knots not to go down (Q644654)

Given a knot \(K\) in a closed orientable \(3\)-manifold \(M\), a surface \(F\) properly embedded in the exterior \(E(K)\) is called meridional if \(\partial F \neq \emptyset\) and any component of \(\partial F\) bounds a meridian disk in the regular neighborhood \(N(K)\). Let \(K_i\) be a knot in a closed orientable \(3\)-manifold \(M_i\) for \(i \in \{1, 2\}\), and denote by \(t(K_i)\) the tunnel number of \(K_i\) in \(M_i\). For the tunnel number of the connected sum \(K_1 \# K_2\) in \(M_1 \# M_2\), it is well known that \(t(K_1 \# K_2) \leq t(K_1) + t(K_2) + 1\). In the present paper, the authors give some sufficient conditions for the tunnel number of the connected sum \(K_1 \# K_2\) in \(M_1 \# M_2\) not to go down. The main theorem states that if each of \((M_i, K_i)\) is not homeomorphic to \((S^2 \times S^1, \{*\} \times S^1)\) and if there is no meridional essential surface \(Q_i\) in \(E(K_i)\) with \(\chi(Q_i) > 1-2t(K_i)\), then \(t(K_1 \# K_2) \geq t(K_1) + t(K_2)\). Further, in addition to the above assumption, if the distance of any minimal Heegaard splitting of each \(E(K_i)\) is greater than \(2\), then \(t(K_1 \# K_2) = t(K_1) + t(K_2) + 1\). The main theorem implies one more sufficient condition: if there is a Heegaard splitting of each \(E(K_i)\) with distance greater than \(2t(K_i)\) (\(2(t(K_i) + 1)\), respectively), then \(t(K_1 \# K_2) \geq t(K_1) + t(K_2)\) (\(t(K_1 \# K_2) = t(K_1) + t(K_2) + 1\), respectively).