Related papers: The depth of a knot tunnel
We construct a new order 1 invariant for knot diagrams. We use it to determine the minimal number of Reidemeister moves needed to pass between certain pairs of knot diagrams.
We show that twisted torus knots $T(p,q,3,s)$ are tunnel number one. A short spanning arc connecting two adjacent twisted strands is an unknotting tunnel.
Ropelength, L, is a parameter characterizing the minimum contour length of a knot or link. There exist upper and lower bounds on ropelength with respect to crossing number, C, including a universal lower bound constraining $L\geq\alpha_0…
For any given number of crossings $c$, there exists a formula to determine the number of 2-bridge knots of $c$ crossings, and indeed it is a simple matter to actually construct presentations of these knots. However, the determination of…
We introduce two numerical invariants, the waist and the trunk of knots. The waist of a closed incompressible surface in the complement of a knot is defined as the minimal intersection number of all compressing disks for the surface in the…
We give examples showing that Kidwell's inequality for the maximal degree of the Brandt-Lickorish-Millett-Ho polynomial is in general not sharp.
Using Kauffman's model of flat knotted ribbons, we demonstrate how all regular polygons of at least seven sides can be realised by ribbon constructions of torus knots. We calculate length to width ratios for these constructions thereby…
We define the concordance crosscap number of a knot as the minimum crosscap number among all the knots concordant to the knot. The four-dimensional crosscap number is the minimum first Betti number of non-orientable surfaces smoothly…
We present new computations of approximately length-minimizing polygons with fixed thickness. These curves model the centerlines of "tight" knotted tubes with minimal length and fixed circular cross-section. Our curves approximately…
The distortion of a curve measures the maximum arc/chord length ratio. Gromov showed any closed curve has distortion at least pi/2 and asked about the distortion of knots. Here, we prove that any nontrivial tame knot has distortion at least…
We define two new families of invariants for (3-manifold, graph) pairs which detect the unknot and are additive under connected sum of pairs and (-1/2)-additive under trivalent vertex sum of pairs. The first of these families is closely…
A ribbon is a two-dimensional object with one-dimensional properties which is related with geometry, robotics and molecular biology. A folded ribbon structure provides a complex structure through a series of folds. We focus on a folded…
Ropelength and embedding thickness are related measures of geometric complexity of classical knots and links in Euclidean space. In their recent work, Freedman and Krushkal posed a question regarding lower bounds for embedding thickness of…
The simultaneous crossing number is a new knot invariant which is defined for strongly invertible knots having diagrams with two orthogonal transvergent axes of strong inversions. Because the composition of the two inversions gives a cyclic…
The transient number of a knot K, denoted tr(K), is the minimal number of simple arcs that have to be attached to K, in order that K can be homotoped to a trivial knot in a regular neighborhood of the union of K and the arcs. We give a…
We study inequalities between integer-valued knot invariants arising from classical knot theory, four-dimensional topology, knot homologies, and knot polynomials. We present a directed graph consisting of 48 inequalities between 33 knot…
A bridge trisection of a smooth surface in $S^4$ is a decomposition analogous to a bridge splitting of a link in $S^3$. The Kirby-Thompson invariant of a bridge trisection measures its complexity in terms of distances between disc sets in…
If a knot K in a closed, orientable 3-manifold M has a bridge surface T with distance at least 3 in the curve complex of T - K, then the genus of any essential surface in its exterior with non-empty, non-meridional boundary gives rise to an…
We study 2-string free tangle decompositions of knots with tunnel number two. As an application, we construct infinitely many counter-examples to a conjecture in the literature stating that the tunnel number of the connected sum of prime…
We provide sharp lower bounds for two versions of the Kirby-Thompson invariants for knotted surfaces, one of which was originally defined by Blair, Campisi, Taylor, and Tomova. The second version introduced in this paper measures distances…