English

Constructing embedded surfaces for cellular embeddings of leveled spatial graphs

Geometric Topology 2025-10-21 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

For a given spatial graph GR3\mathcal{G} \subset \mathbb{R}^3, we would like to find a closed orientable surface S\mathcal{S} embedded in R3\mathbb{R}^3 in which G\mathcal{G} is cellular embedded. However, for general G\mathcal{G} this is not possible. We therefore define a property of spatial graphs, called leveled, to show that for leveled spatial graphs with a small number of levels, a surface S\mathcal{S} can always be found. The argument is based on decomposing G\mathcal{G} into spatial subgraphs that can be placed on a sphere and on cylinders attached as handles, in such a way that the resulting surface contains a cellular embedding of G\mathcal{G}. We generalize the procedure to an algorithm that, if successful, constructs S\mathcal{S} for leveled spatial graphs with any number of levels. We conjecture that all connected leveled embeddings can be cellular embedded with the presented algorithm.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.03800,
  title  = {Constructing embedded surfaces for cellular embeddings of leveled spatial graphs},
  author = {Senja Barthel and Fabio Buccoliero},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.03800},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

27 pages, 16 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T16:55:26.041Z