English

An extended symmetric union and its Alexander polynomial

Geometric Topology 2025-02-13 v1

Abstract

For prime knots K1K_1 and K2K_2, we write K1K2K_1 \geq K_2 if there is an epimorphism from the knot group of K1K_1 to that of K2K_2 which preserves the meridian. We construct a family of pairs of knots with K1K2K_1 \geq K_2 such that an epimorphism maps the longitude of K1K_1 to the trivial element. This construction is regarded as an extension of a symmetric union with a single full twisted region. In particular, it extends a property of the Alexander polynomial of a symmetric union. We also exhibit that all but two of the knots up to ten crossings in the list of Kitano-Suzuki, which have an epimorphism mapping the longitude to the trivial element, arise from this construction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.08229,
  title  = {An extended symmetric union and its Alexander polynomial},
  author = {Teruaki Kitano and Yasuharu Nakae},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.08229},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

12 pages, 13 figures