Related papers: Splitting numbers and signatures

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…

In this paper, we study a geometric/topological measure of knots and links called the nullification number. The nullification of knots/links is believed to be biologically relevant. For example, in DNA topology, one can intuitively regard…

We define a knot to be half ribbon if it is the cross-section of a ribbon 2-knot, and observe that ribbon implies half ribbon implies slice. We introduce the half ribbon genus of a knot K, the minimum genus of a ribbon knotted surface of…

A well-known algorithm for unknotting knots involves traversing a knot diagram and changing each crossing that is first encountered from below. The minimal number of crossings changed in this way across all diagrams for a knot is called the…

We use Heegaard Floer homology to give obstructions to unknotting a knot with a single crossing change. These restrictions are particularly useful in the case where the knot in question is alternating. As an example, we use them to classify…

The ribbon number $r(K)$ of a ribbon knot $K \subset S^3$ is the minimal number of ribbon intersections contained in any ribbon disk bounded by $K$. We find new lower bounds for $r(K)$ using $\det(K)$ and $\Delta_K(t)$, and we prove that…

The homotopy trivializing number, \(n_h(L)\), and the Delta homotopy trivializing number, \(n_\Delta(L)\), are invariants of the link homotopy class of \(L\) which count how many crossing changes or Delta moves are needed to reduce that…

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 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…

We study the booklink, a braid-like embedding with local maxima and minima, and the bridge-braid spectrum of a link, which captures the smallest number of braid-strands in a booklink with a prescribed number of critical points. This…

The crossing number of a graph $G$, ${\mbox{cr}}(G)$, is the minimum number of crossings, the pair-crossing number, ${\mbox{pcr}}(G)$, is the minimum number of pairs of crossing edges over all drawings of $G$. In this note we show that…

We prove some necessary conditions for a link to be either concordant to a quasi-positive link, quasi-positive, positive, or the closure of a positive braid. The main applications of our results are a characterisation of positive links with…

We describe a way of encoding a Kauffman state as a set of tuples, similar to a Gauss code. Then we describe a procedure for using these state codes to determine the unoriented genus and crosscap number of any prime alternating knot or…

We have developed a reinforcement learning agent that often finds a minimal sequence of unknotting crossing changes for a knot diagram with up to 200 crossings, hence giving an upper bound on the unknotting number. We have used this to…

Ascending numbers are determined for 64 knots with at most n=10 crossings. After proving the theorem about the signature of alternating knot families, we distinguished all families of knots obtained from generating alternating knots with at…

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…

The crossing number of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of edge crossings over all drawings of $G$ in the plane. A graph $G$ is $k$-crossing-critical if its crossing number is at least $k$, but if we remove any edge of $G$, its crossing…

Knotoids are open ended knot diagrams regarded up to Reidemeister moves and isotopies. The notion is introduced by V.~Turaev in 2012. Two most important numeric characteristics of a knotoid are the crossing number and the height. The latter…

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…

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…