Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 141 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The slam-dunk move eliminates a meridional component with coefficient and replaces the other coefficient by . Eliminating the component with coefficient three givesThus this Dehn surgery on a framed link becomes Dehn filling on the unknot, with the required orientation. As a check, its surgery linking matrix iswhose determinant is five.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 141 2 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be the positively oriented Hopf link obtained by closing a two-strand braid with two positive crossings. Switching one crossing gives the two-component unlink; the oriented smoothing gives the unknot. The printed skein relation givesRepresent the right-handed trefoil knot by the closure of the two-strand braid with three positive crossings. Switching one crossing gives the unknot, while its oriented smoothing gives . Consequentlyso the two Jones polynomials areThe second expression follows from the mirror of a link identity. They are unequal Laurent polynomials, so invariance under link isotopy proves that the right-handed and left-handed trefoils are not isotopic.
