Generating pairs of 2-bridge knot groups

Overview & Synopsis

We study Nielsen equivalence classes of generating pairs of Kleinian groups and HNN-extensions. We establish the following facts: - Hyperbolic 2-bridge knot groups have infinitely many Nielsen classes of generating pairs. - For any natural number N there is a closed hyperbolic 3-manifold whose fundamental group has N distinct Nielsen classes of generating pairs. - Two pairs of elements of a fundamental group of an HNN-extension are Nielsen equivalent iff they are so for the obvious reasons.