English

Unknotting sequences for torus knots

Geometric Topology 2015-05-13 v1

Abstract

The unknotting number of a knot is bounded from below by its slice genus. It is a well-known fact that the genera and unknotting numbers of torus knots coincide. In this note we characterize quasipositive knots for which the genus bound is sharp: the slice genus of a quasipositive knot equals its unknotting number, if and only if the given knot appears in an unknotting sequence of a torus knot.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0809.0183,
  title  = {Unknotting sequences for torus knots},
  author = {Sebastian Baader},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0809.0183},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

7 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:15:32.500Z