Epimorphisms and boundary slopes of 2-bridge knots (Q982407)

Knots in \(S^3\) can be partially ordered by declaring that ``\(K'\geq K\)'' if and only if there exists an epimorphism from the fundamental group of the exterior of \(K'\) to the fundamental group of the exterior of \(K\) that preserves the peripheral structure. This partial order, which has been introduced by \textit{D. S. Silver} and \textit{W. Whitten} in [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 15, No. 2, 153--166 (2006; Zbl 1096.57007)], is far from being well understood although it is known to behave well with respect to some invariants such as the Alexander polynomial or the \(A\)-polynomial of knots. The paper under review studies this partial order for \(2\)-bridge knots using boundary slopes. Recall that \(a/b \in \mathbb{Q} \cup \{\infty\}\) is a ``boundary slope'' of a knot \(K\) if there is a properly-embedded essential surface \(S\) in the exterior \(E(K)\) of \(K\) such that \(\partial S \subset \partial E(K)\) consists of parallel copies of the simple closed curve with slope \(a/b\). This notion turns out to be useful for the study of the Silver-Whitten partial order since the slope of any side of the Newton polygon of the \(A\)-polynomial determines a boundary slope, and the converse is true for \(2\)-bridge knots. Using the work of \textit{A. E. Hatcher} and \textit{W. Thurston} [Invent. Math. 79, 225--246 (1985; Zbl 0602.57002)], the authors characterize all \(2\)-bridge knots having \(2,3\) or \(4\) distinct boundary slopes and they describe the corresponding slope sets. Thus, they are able to show the following alternative for any non-trivial ordered pair of \(2\)-bridge knots \(K'\geq K\) arising from an explicit construction of \textit{T. Ohtsuki, R. Riley} and \textit{M. Sakuma} [Epimorphisms between 2-bridge link groups. M. Boileau et al. (eds.), The Zieschang Gedenkschrift. Coventry: Geometry \& Topology Publications. Geometry and Topology Monographs 14, 417--450 (2008; Zbl 1146.57011)]: Either \(K'\) has at least \(5\) distinct boundary slopes, or, \(K'\) has exactly \(2\) distinct boundary slopes (in which case \(K\) and \(K'\) are torus knots). Besides, it is shown that a \(2\)-bridge knot having \(3\) distinct boundary slopes is minimal with respect to the Silver-Whitten order. (The same is conjectured to hold with \(4\) distinct boundary slopes.) The conjunction of these two results suggests that every ordered pair of \(2\)-bridge knots \(K'\geq K\) should arise from the Ohtsuki-Riley-Sakuma construction.