A Method for Unknotting Torus Knots

Abstract

Unknotting numbers for torus knots and links are well known. In this paper, we present a method for determining the position of unknotting number crossing changes in a toric braid B(p, q) such that the closure of the resultant braid is equivalent to the trivial knot or link. Also, we provide a simple proof for the important result K(p, q) \sim K(q, p) using the results obtained from this method.