Covering link calculus and iterated Bing doubles (Q945634)

The authors give a new geometric obstruction to the iterated Bing double of a knot being a slice link. The main technique used in the proof is a covering link construction simplifying a given link. Combined with algebraic invariants, these results are sharp enough to conclude, that if the \(n\)-th iterated Bing double of a knot is slice for some \(n\), then the knot is algebraically slice. The authors also give explicit examples of algebraically slice knots with nonslice iterated Bing doubles.