Upper bounds in the theory of unknotting operations

There has been much recent progress on the question of simplifying a knot or link through (generalized) crossing changes. For example, \textit{M. G. Scharlemann} [ Invent. Math. 82, 37-55 (1985; Zbl 0576.57004)] showed that a composite knot cannot be unknotted by a single crossing change, and \textit{M. Scharlemann} and \textit{A. Thompson} [Comment. Math. Helv. 64, No. 4, 527-535 (1989; Zbl 0693.57004)] showed that no crossing change can lower the genus of a totally knotted knot. The author provides here a general result that applies to all knots and links in \(S^3\) about the possibility of simplifying it through a twist of order \(q\) about a unknot \(L = \partial D\) which intersects the link \(K\) in two points of opposite sign (a \(1/q\) surgery on \(L\)). \(L\) is called a crossing link; a twist of order one about a crossing link is the standard notion of a crossing change. Besides unknotting, the author considers the simplifications of changing a non-split link \(K\) into a split link \(K'\) and increasing the Euler characteristic of \(K\) (defined to be the maximal Euler characteristic of any Seifert surface of \(K\)). The main theorem provides an upper bound on \(q\) which can lead to such a simplification which depends on \(K\) but not on \(L.\) This bound is computed for specific cases where it is shown to be sharp. When applied to specific classes of knots such as fibered knots and totally knotted knots, the result generalizes earlier results. The bound given is calculable -- for example, it can be read from an alternating diagram of \(K.\)

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