The rational Witt class and the unknotting number of a knot

Abstract

We use the rational Witt class of a knot in S 3 as a tool for addressing questions about its unknotting number. We apply these tools to several low crossing knots (151 knots with 11 crossing and 100 knots with 12 crossings) and to the family of n-stranded pretzel knots for various values of n ≥ 3. In many cases we obtain new lower bounds and in some cases explicit values for their unknotting numbers. Our results are mainly concerned with unknotting number one but we also address, somewhat more marginally, the case of higher unknotting numbers.