English

Minimal generating sets of Reidemeister moves

Geometric Topology 2015-03-13 v3

Abstract

It is well known that any two diagrams representing the same oriented link are related by a finite sequence of Reidemeister moves O1, O2 and O3. Depending on orientations of fragments involved in the moves, one may distinguish 4 different versions of each of the O1 and O2 moves, and 8 versions of the O3 move. We introduce a minimal generating set of four oriented Reidemeister moves, which includes two O1 moves, one O2 move, and one O3 move. We then study which other sets of up to 5 oriented moves generate all moves, and show that only few of them do. Some commonly considered sets are shown not to be generating. An unexpected non-equivalence of different O3 moves is discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.3127,
  title  = {Minimal generating sets of Reidemeister moves},
  author = {Michael Polyak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.3127},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

14 pages, many figures; v2: significantly improved results; v3: minor changes, publication information