In geometric topology, a branch of mathematics, the (−2, 3, 7) pretzel knot, sometimes called the Fintushel–Stern knot (after Ron Fintushel and Ronald J. Stern), is an important example of a pretzel knot which exhibits various interesting phenomena under three-dimensional and four-dimensional surgery constructions.
Mathematical properties
The (−2, 3, 7) pretzel knot has 7 exceptional slopes, Dehn surgery slopes which give non-hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Among the enumerated knots, the only other hyperbolic knot with 7 or more is the figure-eight knot, which has 10. All other hyperbolic knots are conjectured to have at most 6 exceptional slopes.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/PretzelKnot.jpg/220px-PretzelKnot.jpg)
Further reading
- Kirby, R., (1978). "Problems in low dimensional topology", Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Math., volume 32, 272-312. (see problem 1.77, due to Gordon, for exceptional slopes)
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