Parameterizations of 1-bridge torus knots

Doo Ho Choi, Ki Hyoung Ko

Published 2001-12-11, updated 2002-01-03Version 2

A 1-bridge torus knot in a 3-manifold of genus $\le 1$ is a knot drawn on a Heegaard torus with one bridge. We give two types of normal forms to parameterize the family of 1-bridge torus knots that are similar to the Schubert's normal form and the Conway's normal form for 2-bridge knots. For a given Schubert's normal form we give algorithms to determine the number of components and to compute the fundamental group of the complement when the normal form determines a knot. We also give a description of the double branched cover of an ambient 3-manifold branched along a 1-bridge torus knot by using its Conway's normal form and obtain an explicit formula for the first homology of the double cover.