Related papers: The minimum crossing number of essential tangles
In this paper I give estimates for the minimal crossing number, leading to a short proof that the crossing number is additive for torus links. These estimates are applied to several classes of links. Finally, I prove a part of a conjecture…
The crossing number is the smallest number of pairwise edge-crossings when drawing a graph into the plane. There are only very few graph classes for which the exact crossing number is known or for which there at least exist constant…
We study the algorithmic aspect of edge bundling. A bundled crossing in a drawing of a graph is a group of crossings between two sets of parallel edges. The bundled crossing number is the minimum number of bundled crossings that group all…
This paper, to be regularly updated, lists those prime knots with the fewest possible number of crossings for which values of basic knot invariants, such as the unknotting number or the smooth 4-genus, are unknown. This list is being…
The weak splitting number $wsp(L)$ of a link $L$ is the minimal number of crossing changes needed to turn $L$ into a split union of knots. We describe conditions under which certain $\mathbb{R}$-valued link invariants give lower bounds on…
We present a linear programming based algorithm for computing a spanning tree $T$ of a set $P$ of $n$ points in $\Re^d$, such that its crossing number is $O(\min(t \log n, n^{1-1/d}))$, where $t$ the minimum crossing number of any spanning…
In links with two components there are three different types of crossings: self-crossings in the first component, self crossings in the second component, and crossings between components. In this paper we examine the minimum number of…
Negami found an upper bound on the stick number $s(K)$ of a nontrivial knot $K$ in terms of the minimal crossing number $c(K)$ of the knot which is $s(K) \leq 2 c(K)$. Furthermore McCabe proved $s(K) \leq c(K) + 3$ for a $2$-bridge knot or…
The slicing number of a knot, $u_s(K)$, is the minimum number of crossing changes required to convert $K$ to a slice knot. This invariant is bounded above by the unknotting number and below by the slice genus $g_s(K)$. We show that for many…
Let $k_r(n,\delta)$ be the minimum number of $r$-cliques in graphs with $n$ vertices and minimum degree $\delta$. We evaluate $k_r(n,\delta)$ for $\delta \leq 4n/5$ and some other cases. Moreover, we give a construction, which we conjecture…
We present the complete classification of the subgroup of the classical knot concordance group generated by knots with eight or fewer crossings. Proofs are presented in summary. We also describe extensions of this work to the case of nine…
The crossing number ${\mbox {cr}}(G)$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is the smallest number of edge crossings over all drawings of $G$ in the plane. For any $k\ge 1$, the $k$-planar crossing number of $G$, ${\mbox {cr}}_k(G)$, is defined as the…
Upper and lower bounds are derived for the quantity in the title, which is tabulated for modest values of $n$ and $k.$ An application to graphs with many cycles is given.
Ito-Takimura recently defined a splice-unknotting number $u^-(D)$ for knot diagrams. They proved that this number provides an upper bound for the crosscap number of any prime knot, asking whether equality holds in the alternating case. We…
Given a knot diagram $D$, we construct a semi-threading circle for it which can be an axis of $D$ as a closed braid depending on knot diagrams. In particular, we consider semi-threading circles for minimal diagrams of a knot with respect to…
We show that essential punctured spheres in the complement of links with distance three bridge spheres have bounded complexity. We define the operation of tangle product, a generalization of both connected sum and Conway product. Finally,…
We introduce the triple crossing number, a variation of crossing number, of a graph, which is the minimal number of crossing points in all drawings with only triple crossings of the graph. It is defined to be zero for a planar graph, and to…
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…
We prove an upper bound of $n+9$ for the strong separation number of the complete graph $K_n$, and an upper bound of $n+1$ for its weak separation number. This improves on the previous best known bound of $(1+o(1))n$ for both cases.
We introduce a new polynomial invariant of virtual knots and links and use this invariant to compute a lower bound on the virtual crossing number and the minimal surface genus.