Related papers: Untangling two systems of noncrossing curves

Consider a graph drawn on a surface (for example, the plane minus a finite set of obstacle points), possibly with crossings. We provide an algorithm to decide whether such a drawing can be untangled, namely, if one can slide the vertices…

Let M be a compact, orientable, irreducible, atoroidal 3-manifold with boundary an incompressible torus. Techniques based on the characteristic submanifold theory are used to bound the intersection number of two slopes \alpha and \beta on…

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…

Untangling is a process in which some vertices of a planar graph are moved to obtain a straight-line plane drawing. The aim is to move as few vertices as possible. We present an algorithm that untangles the cycle graph C_n while keeping at…

Baader, J\"org, and Parlier recently established an upper bound for the crossing number of curve systems of size $m\asymp g^{1+\alpha}$ on a genus $g$ surface, obtaining a leading coefficient of $9/4=2.25$. Their construction relies on…

A straight-line drawing $\delta$ of a planar graph $G$ need not be plane, but can be made so by \emph{untangling} it, that is, by moving some of the vertices of $G$. Let shift$(G,\delta)$ denote the minimum number of vertices that need to…

We consider the subspace of the homology of a covering space spanned by lifts of simple closed curves. Our main result is the existence of unbranched covers of surfaces where this is a proper subspace. More generally, for a fixed finite…

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…

We consider the problem of untangling a given (non-planar) straight-line circular drawing $\delta_G$ of an outerplanar graph $G=(V, E)$ into a planar straight-line circular drawing by shifting a minimum number of vertices to a new position…

We study upper bounds on the order of automorphisms of non-singular curves $X$ satisfying at least one of the following hypothesis: 1) $X$ is an $m$-sheeted covering of exactly one non-singular curve of genus $\gamma$, where $m$ is prime;…

The first part of Hilbert's sixteenth problem deals with the classification of the isotopy types realizable by real plane algebraic curves of a given degree $m$. For $m = 9$, the classification of the $M$-curves is still wide open. Let…

Let $S_g$ denoting the genus $g$ closed orientable surface. An {\em origami} (or flat structure) on $S_g$ is obtained from a finite collection of unit Euclidean squares by gluing each right edge to a left one and each top edge to a bottom…

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 initiate the study of computing shortest non-separating simple closed curves with some given topological properties on non-orientable surfaces. While, for orientable surfaces, any two non-separating simple closed curves are related by a…

Let $G$ be a multigraph with $n$ vertices and $e>4n$ edges, drawn in the plane such that any two parallel edges form a simple closed curve with at least one vertex in its interior and at least one vertex in its exterior. Pach and T\'oth (A…

In this note, we consider M-curves of odd degree with real scheme of the form $< \mathcal{J} \amalg \alpha \amalg 1 < \beta > >$. With help of complex orientations, we prove that for $m = 9$, $\alpha \geq 2$, and for $m = 11$, $\alpha \geq…

We prove that there is an algorithm which determines whether or not a given 2-polyhedron can be embedded into some integral homology 3-sphere. This is a corollary of the following main result. Let $M$ be a compact connected orientable…

Given a symplectic three-fold $(M,\omega)$ we show that for a generic almost complex structure $J$ which is compatible with $\omega$, there are finitely many $J$-holomorphic curves in $M$ of any genus $g\geq 0$ representing a homology class…

In this paper, we study the outerplanarity of planar graphs, i.e., the number of times that we must (in a planar embedding that we can initially freely choose) remove the outerface vertices until the graph is empty. It is well-known that…

For a connected $n$-dimensional compact smooth hypersurface $M$ without boundary embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$, a classical result of Aleksandrov shows that it must be a sphere if it has constant mean curvature. Li and Nirenberg studied a…