Identifying tunnel number one knots (Q678264)

The tunnel number of a knot \(K\) in \(S^3\) is the minimal number of mutually disjoint arcs \(\{\tau_i\}\) ``properly embedded'' in the pair \((S^3,K)\) such that the complement of an open regular neighbourhood of \(K\cup(\cup\tau_i)\) is a handlebody. This paper gives a certain method to determine whether a given knot \(K\) has tunnel number one. The idea is to look at the canonical 2-fold symmetry arising from an unknotting tunnel and to reduce the problem to that concerning symmetries of knots and that concerning spatial \(\theta\)-curves. Further, a certain effective method for the problem concerning spatial \(\theta\)-curves by means of Yamada's invariants of spatial graphs is given. By using the method, the tunnel numbers of prime knots up to 10 crossings are determined, and a certain condition for a Montesinos knot to have tunnel number 1 is obtained. As an application, it is shown that certain extended triangle groups are generated by two elements though their geometric ranks are three. Later on E. Klimenko and the second author proved that these are the only two generator extended triangle groups. Combined with the result mentioned above, this enables them to determine the tunnel number 1 Montesinos knots. Recently, Y. Nakagawa determined the two-component Montesinos links with tunnel number 1.