On knot Floer width and Turaev genus (Q945652)

Let \(K\) be a knot in the \(3\)-sphere. The Floer homology of \(K\) is a bigraded abelian group \(\widehat{HFK}(K)\) whose graded Euler characteristic is the symmetric Alexander polynomial of \(K\). This invariant of knots was introduced by \textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó} in their paper [Adv. Math. 186, No.~1, 58--116 (2004; Zbl 1062.57019)] and, independently, by J. A. Rasmussen in his PhD thesis (Harvard 2003). The nonzero ranks of the Floer homology groups lie on a finite number of slope one lines with respect to the bigrading. The width of this homology is roughly the largest horizontal distance between two such lines. The Turaev surface of a knot diagram is an unknotted oriented surface on which the knot has an alternating projection. The Turaev genus of a knot is the minimum genus over all Turaev surfaces for the knot. In the paper under review, the author shows that the width of knot Floer homology is bounded by Turaev genus plus one. He also gives skein relations for the genus of the Turaev surface and the width of a complex that generates knot Floer homology.