Little big knots

A little big knot is a knot with small rank, typically two or three, and large topology, such as a satellite knot or a knot with a pair of inequivalent Conway spheres. For example, the Bailey-Rolfsen knot (i.e. the \((11,2)\) cable of the trefoil) is a two-generator satellite, and \(12n135\) in the new knot tables of Hoste, Thistlethwaite and Weeks is a three generator knot with a pair of inequivalent Conway spheres. The knots with a rank two group, the so-called two generator knots, are the smallest nontrivial knots. For example, the figure eight knot \(4_1\), the \((-2,3,7)\)-pretzel knot, and a remarkable knot discovered by Morimoto, Sakuma and Yokota. These are 2-bridge, genus one 1-bridge, and double torus, respectively. Thus, such knots are related by Heegaard splitting (i.e. handle structure) of their exteriors. Theorem [Bleiler-Jones]: A satellite knot whose group has a two generator presentation with one generator meridional is the union along a torus of a 2-bridge link exterior and torus knot exterior in a manner taking the meridian of the link exterior to the regular fibre of the torus knot. All these knots are of tunnel number one. Thus both the `two generator is tunnel one' and `meridional generator' conjectures hold for these knots. Theorem: A satellite knot or a knot with at least two inequivalent Conway spheres whose group has a presentation in which all three generators are meridional has bridge number three and tunnel number two. Theorem: A two generator satellite knot with no two generator presentation containing a meridional generator is a counterexample to the ``two generator is tunnel number one conjecture.

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