Augmentation Rank of Satellites with Braid Pattern

Abstract

Given a knot $K$ in $S^3$, a question raised by Cappell and Shaneson asks if the meridional rank of $K$ equals the bridge number of $K$. Using augmentations in knot contact homology we consider the persistence of equality between these two invariants under satellite operations on $K$ with a braid pattern. In particular, we answer the question in the affirmative for a large class of iterated torus knots.

23 pages, 10 figures, comments are welcome