Hyperbolicity of Alternating Links in Thickened Surfaces with Boundary

Abstract: Let $F$ be a compact orientable surface with nonempty boundary other than a disk. Let $L$ be a link in $F \times I$ with a connected weakly prime cellular alternating projection to $F$. We provide simple conditions that determine exactly when $(F \times I) \setminus N(L)$ is hyperbolic. We also consider suitable embeddings of $F \times I$ in an ambient manifold $Y$ with boundary and provide conditions on links $L \subset F \times I$ which guarantee tg-hyperbolicity of $Y \setminus N(L)$. These results provide many examples of hyperbolic links in handlebodies and fiber bundles. It also provides many examples of staked links that are hyperbolic.