A quantitative Birman-Menasco finiteness theorem and its application to crossing number

Abstract

Birman-Menasco proved that there are finitely many knots having a given genus and braid index. We give a quantitative version of Birman-Menasco finiteness theorem, an estimate of the crossing number of knots in terms of genus and braid index. This has various applications of crossing numbers, such as, the crossing number of connected sum or satellites.