The Knot Complement Conjecture

Let KK be a knot in a closed connected orientable 33--manifold YY, with exterior M=YintN(K)M=Y\setminus\operatorname{int}N(K) irreducible and not homeomorphic to the solid torus. A slope is an isotopy class of unoriented essential simple closed curves on M\partial M; write Yr(K)Y_r(K) for the result of Dehn surgery along rr, and let the meridian of KK be the slope bounding a disk in N(K)N(K). Two slopes are equivalent if a homeomorphism of the knot exterior takes one to the other. Knot complement conjecture. If there is a non-trivial slope rr such that there is an orientation-preserving homeomorphism

Yr(K)Y,Y_r(K)\cong Y,

then rr is equivalent to the meridian of KK. This is the surgery formulation of the claim that knots satisfying the stated hypotheses are determined by their complements. The supplied source notes that knots in S3S^3 are determined by their complements, while giving no resolution of the conjecture in the generality stated.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Fyodor Gainullin, “Heegaard Floer homology and knots determined by their complements”, arXiv:1504.06180 (2017).

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