Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/iii/paper-112/1/iv/solution

Take the untwisted Whitehead double of a trefoil knot. The Whitehead pattern has winding number of a satellite pattern zero and becomes the unknot when its companion is the unknot. The Satellite formula for the Alexander polynomial therefore gives
The Whitehead pattern is geometrically essential in its solid torus, so the satellite knot with nontrivial companion is nontrivial. Hence is not isotopic to the unknot despite having trivial Alexander polynomial of a knot.

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