Related papers: Complexity of planar and spherical curves

We prove that, as $m$ grows, any family of $m$ homotopically distinct closed curves on a surface induces a number of crossings that grows at least like $(m \log m)^2$. We use this to answer two questions of Pach, Tardos and Toth related to…

Any generic closed curve in the plane can be transformed into a simple closed curve by a finite sequence of local transformations called homotopy moves. We prove that simplifying a planar closed curve with $n$ self-crossings requires…

We consider systems of simple closed curves on surfaces and their total number of intersection points, their so-called crossing number. For a fixed number of curves, we aim to minimise the crossing number. We determine the minimal crossing…

Given a set of planar curves (Jordan arcs), each pair of which meets -- either crosses or touches -- exactly once, we establish an upper bound on the number of touchings. We show that such a curve family has $O(t^2n)$ touchings, where $t$…

Given $n$ continuous open curves in the plane, we say that a pair is touching if they have only one interior point in common and at this point the first curve does not get from one side of the second curve to its other side. Otherwise, if…

We call a multigraph {\em non-homotopic} if it can be drawn in the plane in such a way that no two edges connecting the same pair of vertices can be continuously transformed into each other without passing through a vertex, and no loop can…

We exhibit planar, rational curves of large degree over ${\mathbb F}_2$ that have a unique singular point, which has multiplicity 2. In characteristic 0 such curves exist only for degrees up to $6$. v.2: references updated and examples of…

Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a plane singular curve defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. The linear system of plane curves of a given degree passing through the singularities of $\cF$ provides potentially good bounds for the number of points…

We give an exponential upper and a quadratic lower bound on the number of pairwise non-isotopic simple closed curves can be placed on a closed surface of genus g such that any two of the curves intersects at most once. Although the gap is…

We prove the first polynomial bound on the number of monotonic homotopy moves required to tighten a collection of closed curves on any compact orientable surface, where the number of crossings in the curve is not allowed to increase at any…

We show that a complex planar curve homeomorphic to the projective line has at most four singular points. If it has exactly four then it has degree five and is unique up to a projective equivalence.

A morph between two straight-line planar drawings of the same graph is a continuous transformation from the first to the second drawing such that planarity is preserved at all times. Each step of the morph moves each vertex at constant…

Suppose $\mathcal{X}$ is an $n$-correct set of nodes in the plane, that is, it admits a unisolvent interpolation with bivariate polynomials of total degree less than or equal to $n.$ Then an algebraic curve $q$ of degree $k\le n$ can pass…

Every smooth cubic plane curve has 9 flex points and 27 sextatic points. We study the following question asked by Farb: Is it true that the known algebraic structures give all the possible ways to continuously choose $n$ distinct points on…

A multigraph drawn in the plane is non-homotopic if no two edges connecting the same pair of vertices can be continuously deformed into each other without passing through a vertex, and is $k$-crossing if every pair of edges…

A graph is path-pairable if for any pairing of its vertices there exist edge-disjoint paths joining the vertices in each pair. We investigate the behaviour of the maximum degree in path-pairable planar graphs. We show that any $n$-vertex…

Given a point set, mostly a grid in our case, we seek upper and lower bounds on the number of curves that are needed to cover the point set. We say a curve covers a point if the curve passes through the point. We consider such coverings by…

We enumerate the singular algebraic curves in a complete linear system on a smooth projective surface. The system must be suitably ample in a rather precise sense. The curves may have up to eight nodes, or a triple point of a given type and…

In this paper, we investigate crossing-free 3D morphs between planar straight-line drawings. We show that, for any two (not necessarily topologically equivalent) planar straight-line drawings of an $n$-vertex planar graph, there exists a…

We study 3-plane drawings, that is, drawings of graphs in which every edge has at most three crossings. We show how the recently developed Density Formula for topological drawings of graphs (KKKRSU GD 2024) can be used to count the…