Related papers: The forbidden number of a knot
We define an invariant of welded virtual knots from each finite crossed module by considering crossed module invariants of ribbon knotted surfaces which are naturally associated with them. We elucidate that the invariants obtained are non…
A weaving knot is an alternating knot whose minimal diagram is a closed braid of a lattice-like pattern. In this paper, the warping degree of a braid diagram is defined, and upper bounds of the unknotting number and the region unknotting…
We provide an upper bound on the number of ordered Reidemeister moves required to pass between two diagrams of the same link. This bound is in terms of the number of unordered Reidemeister moves required.
We prove that deciding if a diagram of the unknot can be untangled using at most $k$ Riedemeister moves (where $k$ is part of the input) is NP-hard. We also prove that several natural questions regarding links in the $3$-sphere are NP-hard,…
In this article we take up the calculation of the minimum number of colors needed to produce a non-trivial coloring of a knot. This is a knot invariant and we use the torus knots of type (2, n) as our case study. We calculate the minima in…
We introduce twelve polynomial invariants for long virtual knots, called intersection polynomials, extending and refining the three intersection polynomials for virtual knots. They are defined via intersection numbers of cycles on a closed…
Given a virtual link diagram $D$, we define its unknotting index $U(D)$ to be minimum among $(m, n)$ tuples, where $m$ stands for the number of crossings virtualized and $n$ stands for the number of classical crossing changes, to obtain a…
Virtual knots, defined by Kauffman, provide a natural generalization of classical knots. Most invariants of knots extend in a natural way to give invariants of virtual knots. In this paper we study the fundamental groups of virtual knots…
The Gordian distance between two knots measures how many crossing changes are needed to transform one knot into the other. It is known that there are always infinitely many non-equivalent knots `between' a pair of knots of Gordian distance…
New lower bounds on the unknotting number of a knot are constructed from the classical knot signature function. These bounds can be twice as strong as previously known signature bounds. They can also be stronger than known bounds arising…
We introduce a new numerical invariant of knots and links from the descending diagrams. It is considered to live between the unknotting number and the bridge number.
In this paper, we define the parity virtual Alexander polynomial following the work of BDGGHN [1] and Kaestner and Kauffman [10]. The properties of this invariant are explored and some examples are computed. In particular, the invariant…
Non-classical virtual knots may have non-isomorphic upper and lower quandles. We exploit this property to define the quandle difference invariant, which can detect non-classicality by comparing the numbers of homomorphisms into a finite…
In this paper, we formulate a new local move on virtual knot diagram, called arc shift move. Further, we extend it to another local move called region arc shift defined on a region of a virtual knot diagram. We establish that these arc…
Consider a robot that remembers only the starting position and walks along a knot once on a knot diagram, switching every undercrossing it meets until it returns to the starting position. We observe that the robot produces an ascending…
An equilateral stick number $s_{=}(K)$ of a knot $K$ is defined to be the minimal number of sticks required to construct a polygonal knot of $K$ which consists of equal length sticks. Rawdon and Scharein [12] found upper bounds for the…
In this paper, we study the unknotting operation for twisted knots, called arc shift move. First, we find a family of twisted knots with arc shift number $n$ for any given $n \in \mathbb{N}$. Then we define a new unknotting operation,…
The theory of tunnel number 1 knots detailed in our previous paper, The tree of knot tunnels, provides a non-negative integer invariant called the depth of the tunnel. We give various results related to the depth invariant. Noting that it…
In this paper, we compute the slice genus for many low-crossing virtual knots. For instance, we show that 1295 out of 92800 virtual knots with 6 or fewer crossings are slice, and that all but 248 of the rest are not slice. Key to these…
We prove that for some knot-like objects one can easily recognize non-equivalence w.r.t. all Reidemeister moves by studying some equivalence classes modulo only 2nd Reidemeister moves. There are applications to virtual knots, graph-links…