Generalized torsion for knots with arbitrarily high genus

Abstract

Abstract Let G be a group, and let g be a nontrivial element in G. If some nonempty finite product of conjugates of g equals the identity, then g is called a generalized torsion element. We say that a knot K has generalized torsion if $G(K) = \pi _1(S^3 - K)$ admits such an element. For a $(2, 2q+1)$ -torus knot K, we demonstrate that there are infinitely many unknots $c_n$ in $S^3$ such that p-twisting K about $c_n$ yields a twist family $\{ K_{q, n, p}\}_{p \in \mathbb {Z}}$ in which $K_{q, n, p}$ is a hyperbolic knot with generalized torsion whenever $|p|> 3$ . This gives a new infinite class of hyperbolic knots having generalized torsion. In particular, each class contains knots with arbitrarily high genus. We also show that some twisted torus knots, including the $(-2, 3, 7)$ -pretzel knot, have generalized torsion. Because generalized torsion is an obstruction for having bi-order, these knots have non-bi-orderable knot groups.