English

A simple proof of the Crowell-Murasugi theorem

Geometric Topology 2024-08-28 v1

Abstract

We give an elementary, self-contained proof of the theorem, proven independently in 1958-9 by Crowell and Murasugi, that the genus of an alternating knot equals half the breadth of its Alexander polynomial, and that applying Seifert's algorithm to any alternating knot diagram gives a surface of minimal genus.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.09850,
  title  = {A simple proof of the Crowell-Murasugi theorem},
  author = {Thomas Kindred},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.09850},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome!