Twisted torus knots T(mn + m + 1,mn + 1,mn + m + 2,−1) and T(n + 1,n,2n − 1,−1) are torus knots

A twisted torus knot [Formula: see text] is a torus knot [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] adjacent strands twisted fully [Formula: see text] times. In this paper, we determine the braid index of the knot [Formula: see text] when the parameters [Formula: see text] satisfy [Formula: see text]. If the last parameter [Formula: see text] additionally satisfies [Formula: see text], then we also determine the parameters [Formula: see text] for which [Formula: see text] is a torus knot.

On Fox’s trapezoidal conjecture for closed 3-braids

An old and challenging conjecture proposed by Fox in 1962 states that the coefficients of the Alexander polynomial of any alternating knot are trapezoidal. In other words, these coefficients, increase, stabilize then decrease in a symmetrical way. This curious behavior of the Alexander polynomial has been confirmed in several special cases of alternating knots. The purpose of this paper is to prove that the conjecture holds for some families of alternating knots of braid index 3.

Braid index bounds ropelength from below

For an unoriented link [Formula: see text], let [Formula: see text] be the ropelength of [Formula: see text]. It is known that in general [Formula: see text] is at least of the order [Formula: see text], and at most of the order [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is the minimum crossing number of [Formula: see text]. Furthermore, it is known that there exist families of (infinitely many) links with the property [Formula: see text]. A long standing open conjecture states that if [Formula: see text] is alternating, then [Formula: see text] is at least of the order [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we show that the braid index of a link also gives a lower bound of its ropelength. More specifically, we show that there exists a constant [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] for any [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the largest braid index among all braid indices corresponding to all possible orientation assignments of the components of [Formula: see text] (called the maximum braid index of [Formula: see text]). Consequently, [Formula: see text] for any link [Formula: see text] whose maximum braid index is proportional to its crossing number. In the case of alternating links, the maximum braid indices for many of them are proportional to their crossing numbers hence the above conjecture holds for these alternating links.

Triple crossing number and double crossing braid index

Traditionally, knot theorists have considered projections of knots where there are two strands meeting at every crossing. A triple crossing is a crossing where three strands meet at a single point, such that each strand bisects the crossing. In this paper we find a relationship between the triple crossing number and the double crossing braid index for unoriented links, namely [Formula: see text]. This yields a new method for determining braid indices. We find an infinite family of knots that achieve equality, which allows us to determine both the double crossing braid index and the triple crossing number of these knots.

The braid index of reduced alternating links

It is well known that the minimum crossing number of an alternating link equals the number of crossings in any reduced alternating link diagram of the link. This remarkable result is an application of the Jones polynomial. In the case of the braid index of an alternating link, Yamada showed that the minimum number of Seifert circles over all regular projections of a link equals the braid index. Thus one may conjecture that the number of Seifert circles in a reduced alternating diagram of the link equals the braid index of the link, but this turns out to be false. In this paper we prove the next best thing that one could hope for: we characterise exactly those alternating links for which their braid indices equal the numbers of Seifert circles in their corresponding reduced alternating link diagrams. More specifically, we prove that if D is a reduced alternating link diagram of an alternating link L, then b(L), the braid index of L, equals the number of Seifert circles in D if and only if GS(D) contains no edges of weight one. Here GS(D), called the Seifert graph of D, is an edge weighted simple graph obtained from D by identifying each Seifert circle of D as a vertex of GS(D) such that two vertices in GS(D) are connected by an edge if and only if the two corresponding Seifert circles share crossings between them in D and that the weight of the edge is the number of crossings between the two Seifert circles. This result is partly based on the well-known MFW inequality, which states that the a-span of the HOMFLY polynomial of L is a lower bound of 2b(L)−2, as well as the result of Yamada relating the minimum number of Seifert circles over all link diagrams of L to b(L).