English

When will the crossing number of an alternating link decrease by two via a crossing change?

Geometric Topology 2014-07-02 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let DD be a reduced alternating diagram of a non-split link LL and L~\tilde{L} be the link whose diagram is obtained from DD by a crossing change. If L~\tilde{L} is alternating, then c(L~)c(L)2c(\tilde{L})\leq c(L)-2. In this paper we explore when c(L~)=c(L)2c(\tilde{L})=c(L)-2 holds and obtain a simple sufficient and necessary condition in terms of plane graphs corresponding to LL. This result is obtained via analyzing the behavior of the Tutte polynomial of the signed plane graph corresponding to L~\tilde{L}.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1407.0139,
  title  = {When will the crossing number of an alternating link decrease by two via a crossing change?},
  author = {Xian'an Jin and Fuji Zhang and Jun Ge},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.0139},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

24 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:52:10.173Z