One-domination of knots

Abstract

We say that a knot $k_{1}$ in the $3$-sphere $1$-dominates another $k_{2}$ if there is a proper degree 1 map $E(k_{1})\to E(k_{2})$ between their exteriors, and write $k_{1}\ge k_{2}$. When $k_{1}\ge k_{2}$ but $k_{1}\ne k_{2}$ we write $k_{1}>k_{2}$. One expects in the latter eventuality that $k_{1}$ is more complicated. In this paper, we produce various sorts of evidence to support this philosophy.