Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/iii/paper-141/4/c/solution

The Mayer--Vietoris sequence for the splice identifies the companion meridian with the pattern longitude and kills exactly the relation already killed when passing from to . It therefore gives a canonical isomorphism
Apply multiplicativity of Turaev torsion to the torus union defining , and use part (b) to replace the torsion of . The factors cancel against the peripheral factor from the companion exterior. Using
on the three knot exteriors leaves
Under a one-variable identification, sends the companion variable to , where is the winding number of a satellite pattern. Thus this is also the usual Satellite formula for the Alexander polynomial.

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