Related papers: Untangling two systems of noncrossing curves

A graph is near-planar if it can be obtained from a planar graph by adding an edge. We show the surprising fact that it is NP-hard to compute the crossing number of near-planar graphs. A graph is 1-planar if it has a drawing where every…

Meier and Zupan proved that an orientable surface $\mathcal{K}$ in $S^4$ admits a tri-plane diagram with zero crossings if and only if $\mathcal{K}$ is unknotted, so that the crossing number of $\mathcal{K}$ is zero. We determine the…

We consider the system -\Delta u_j + a(x)u_j = \mu_j u_j^3 + \be\sum_{k\ne j}u_k^2u_j, u_j>0, \qquad j=1,...,n, on a possibly unbounded domain $\Om\subset\R^N$, $N\le3$, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. The system appears in nonlinear…

A classical result by Pachner states that two $d$-dimensional combinatorial manifolds with boundary are PL homeomorphic if and only they can be connected by a sequence of shellings and inverse shellings. We prove that for balanced, i.e.,…

Beyond-planarity focuses on the study of geometric and topological graphs that are in some sense nearly-planar. Here, planarity is relaxed by allowing edge crossings, but only with respect to some local forbidden crossing configurations.…

We prove that for every $\epsilon>0$ there exists $\delta>0$ such that the following holds. Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a collection of $n$ curves in the plane such that there are at most $(\frac{1}{4}-\epsilon)\frac{n^{2}}{2}$ pairs of curves…

How much cutting is needed to simplify the topology of a surface? We provide bounds for several instances of this question, for the minimum length of topologically non-trivial closed curves, pants decompositions, and cut graphs with a given…

We consider relations between the size, treewidth, and local crossing number (maximum number of crossings per edge) of graphs embedded on topological surfaces. We show that an $n$-vertex graph embedded on a surface of genus $g$ with at most…

Let $ S_g $ be a closed surface of genus $ g $ and let $ (\alpha, \beta) $ be a filling pair on $ S_g $; then $ i(\alpha, \beta) \geq 2g-1 $, where $ i $ is the (geometric) intersection number. Aougab and Huang demonstrated that…

We study two decomposition problems in combinatorial geometry. The first part deals with the decomposition of multiple coverings of the plane. We say that a planar set is cover-decomposable if there is a constant m such that any m-fold…

Given $n$ points in the plane, a \emph{covering path} is a polygonal path that visits all the points. If no three points are collinear, every covering path requires at least $n/2$ segments, and $n-1$ straight line segments obviously suffice…

It is well known that a graph with $m$ edges can be made triangle-free by removing (slightly less than) $m/2$ edges. On the other hand, there are many classes of graphs which are hard to make triangle-free in the sense that it is necessary…

To untangle a geometric graph means to move some of the vertices so that the resulting geometric graph has no crossings. Pach and Tardos [Discrete Comput. Geom., 2002] asked if every n-vertex geometric planar graph can be untangled while…

A family of closed simple (i.e., Jordan) curves is $m$-intersecting if any pair of its curves have at most $m$ points of common intersection. We say that a pair of such curves touch if they intersect at a single point of common tangency. In…

Let $M$ be a compact hypersurface with boundary $\partial M=\partial D_1 \cup \partial D_2$, $\partial D_1 \subset \Pi _1$, $\partial D_2 \subset \Pi _2$, $\Pi_1$ and $\Pi _2$ two parallel hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ ($n \geq 2$).…

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the minimal size of families of curves on surfaces with the following property: a family of simple closed curves $\Gamma$ on a surface realizes all types of pants decompositions if for any pants…

Let $F$ be a crossing family over ground set $V$, that is, for any two sets $U,W\in{F}$ with nonempty intersection and proper union, both sets $U\cap{W},U\cup{W}$ are in $F$. Let $\sigma:V\to \{+,-\}$ be a signing. We call $\sigma$ a…

A sequence of constant mean curvature surfaces $\Sigma_j$ with mean curvature $H_j \to \infty$ in a three-dimensional manifold $M$ condenses to a compact and connected graph $\Gamma$ consisting of a finite union of curves if $\Sigma_j$ is…

Menger's Edge Theorem asserts that there exist $k$ pairwise edge-disjoint paths between two vertices in an undirected graph if and only if a deletion of any $k-1$ or less edges does not disconnect these two vertices. Alternatively, there…

In this article, we propose a new approach for describing and understanding knots and links in a 3-manifold through the use of an embedded non-orientable surface. Specifically, we define a plat-like representation based on this…