The average genus of a 2-bridge knot is asymptotically linear

Abstract

Experimental work suggests that the Seifert genus of a knot grows linearly with respect to the crossing number of the knot. In this article, we use a billiard table model for $2$-bridge or rational knots to show that the average genus of a $2$-bridge knot with crossing number $c$ asymptotically approaches $c/4+1/12$.

17 pages, 2 figures