A characterization of alternating links in thickened surfaces

Abstract

We use an extension of Gordon-Litherland pairing to thickened surfaces to give a topological characterization of alternating links in thickened surfaces. If $\Sigma$ is a closed oriented surface and $F$ is a compact unoriented surface in $\Sigma \times I$, then the Gordon-Litherland pairing defines a symmetric bilinear pairing on the first homology of $F$. A compact surface in $\Sigma \times I$ is called definite if its Gordon-Litherland pairing is a definite form. We prove that a non-split link $L$ in a thickened surface is alternating if and only if it bounds two definite surfaces of opposite sign.