Related papers: Untangling Planar Curves
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…
A \emph{$k$-planar graph} is a graph that can be drawn in the plane such that every edge is crossed at most $k$ times. For $k \leq 4$, Pach and T\'oth proved a bound of $(k+3)(n-2)$ on the total number of edges of a $k$-planar graph, which…
In this paper we show how, under surprisingly weak assumptions, one can split a planar curve into three arcs and rearrange them (matching tangent directions) to obtain a closed curve. We also generalize this construction to curves split…
This article investigates when homotopies can be converted to monotone homotopies without increasing the lengths of curves. A monotone homotopy is one which consists of curves which are simple or constant, and in which curves are pairwise…
Given a compact, oriented surface $S$ of finite genus and finitely many boundary components, we provide examples of finite covers $\tilde{S}$ of $S$ and non-simple closed curves $\gamma$ on $S$ which lifts to simple closed curves on…
We show that every complete $n$-vertex simple topological graph contains a topological subgraph on at least $(\log n)^{1/4 - o(1)}$ vertices that is weakly isomorphic to the complete convex geometric graph or the complete twisted graph.…
Measuring the similarity of curves is a fundamental problem arising in many application fields. There has been considerable interest in several such measures, both in Euclidean space and in more general setting such as curves on Riemannian…
A closed plane meander of order $n$ is a closed self-avoiding curve intersecting an infinite line $2n$ times. Meanders are considered distinct up to any smooth deformation leaving the line fixed. We have developed an improved algorithm,…
In this paper, we present a constructive and proof-relevant development of graph theory, including the notion of maps, their faces, and maps of graphs embedded in the sphere, in homotopy type theory. This allows us to provide an elementary…
A theta curve is a spatial embedding of the $\theta$-graph in the three-sphere, taken up to ambient isotopy. We define the determinant of a theta curve as an integer-valued invariant arising from the first homology of its Klein cover. When…
We present the first algorithm to morph graphs on the torus. Given two isotopic essentially 3-connected embeddings of the same graph on the Euclidean flat torus, where the edges in both drawings are geodesics, our algorithm computes a…
We prove that, given two topologically-equivalent upward planar straight-line drawings of an $n$-vertex directed graph $G$, there always exists a morph between them such that all the intermediate drawings of the morph are upward planar and…
It is proved that smooth closed curves of given length minimizing the principal eigenvalue of the Schr\"odinger operator $-\frac{d^2}{ds^2}+\kappa^2$ exist. Here $s$ denotes the arclength and $\kappa$ the curvature. These minimizers are…
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…
Motivated by hybrid graph representations, we introduce and study the following beyond-planarity problem, which we call $h$-Clique2Path Planarity: Given a graph $G$, whose vertices are partitioned into subsets of size at most $h$, each…
Let $G$ be a directed graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, embedded on a surface $S$, possibly with boundary, with first Betti number $\beta$. We consider the complexity of finding closed directed walks in $G$ that are either contractible…
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…
The classical Crossing Lemma by Ajtai et al.~and Leighton from 1982 gave an important lower bound of $c \frac{m^3}{n^2}$ for the number of crossings in any drawing of a given graph of $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. The original value was $c=…
We give an explicit calculation of the Wu invariants for immersions of a finite graph into the plane and classify all generic immersions of a graph into the plane up to regular homotopy by the Wu invariant. This result is a generalization…
A necessary and sufficient algebraic condition for a diffeomorphism over a surface embedded in the 3-sphere to be induced by a regular homotopic deformation is discussed, and a formula for the number of signed pass moves needed for this…