A Family of Links and the Conway Calculus

Abstract

In 1969, J. H. Conway gave efficient methods of calculating abelian invariants of classical knots and links. The present paper includes a detailed exposition (with new proofs) of these methods and extensions in several directions. The main application given here is as follows. A link $L$ of two unknotted components in ${S^3}$ has the distinct lifting property for $p$ if the lifts of each component to the $p$-fold cover of ${S^3}$ branched along the other are distinct. The $p$-fold covers of these lifts are homeomorphic, and so $L$ gives an example of two distinct knots with the same $p$-fold cover. The above machinery is then used to construct an infinite family of links, each with the distinct lifting property for all $p \geqslant 2$.