Trivializing number of knots

Abstract

We introduce a numerical invariant, called trivializing number, of knots and investigate it. The trivializing number gives an upper bound of unknotting number and canonical genus for knots. We present a table of trivializing numbers for up to 10 crossings knots. We conjecture that twice of the unknotting number of any positive knot is equal to the trivializing number of it and give a partial answer.