The no-alternating-surgery conjecture for knots sharing Alexander polynomials with D\mathcal{D}

Let KDK\notin \mathcal{D} be a knot, and suppose that there is a knot KDK'\in \mathcal{D} with

ΔK(x)=ΔK(x).\Delta_K(x)=\Delta_{K'}(x).

Here ΔK(x)\Delta_K(x) denotes the Alexander polynomial of KK, and Salt(K)\mathcal{S}_{\rm alt}(K) denotes the set of alternating surgery slopes. No-alternating-surgery conjecture.

Salt(K)=.\mathcal{S}_{\rm alt}(K)=\emptyset.

The source states that the conjecture is needed to complete the analysis of knots outside D\mathcal{D} and that no examples are currently known of such knots admitting alternating surgeries.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Kenneth L. Baker, Marc Kegel and Duncan McCoy, “The search for alternating surgeries”, arXiv:2409.09842 (2026).

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