Related papers: Tile Number and Space-Efficient Knot Mosaics

It is known that the arc index of alternating knots is the minimal crossing number plus two and the arc index of prime nonalternating knots is less than or equal to the minimal crossing number. We study some cases when the arc index is…

We show that for any closed, orientable surface $K$ smoothly embedded in $\mathbb{R}^4$, the unit $4$-ball $B^4 \subset \mathbb{R}^4$ can be tiled using $n \geq 3$ tiles each congruent to a regular neighborhood (with corners) of a surface…

The notion of a mesh pattern was introduced recently, but it has already proved to be a useful tool for description purposes related to sets of permutations. In this paper we study eight mesh patterns of small lengths. In particular, we…

A tromino tiling problem is a packing puzzle where we are given a region of connected lattice squares and we want to decide whether there exists a tiling of the region using trominoes with the shape of an L. In this work we study a slight…

A partial order on the set of prime knots can be defined by the existence of an epimorphism between knot groups. We prove that all the prime knots with up to $6$ crossings are minimal. We also show that each fibered knot with the…

It is known that any surface knot can be transformed to an unknotted surface knot or a surface knot which has a diagram with no triple points by a finite number of 1-handle additions. The minimum number of such 1-handles is called the…

Meier and Zupan introduced bridge trisections of surface links in $S^4$ as a 4-dimensional analogue to bridge decompositions of classical links, which gives a numerical invariant of surface links called the bridge number. We prove that…

Given a graph $G$ and collection of subgraphs $T$ (called tiles), we consider covering $G$ with copies of tiles in $T$ so that each vertex $v\in G$ is covered with a predetermined multiplicity. The multinomial tiling model is a natural…

In the abstract Tile Assembly Model, self-assembling systems consisting of tiles of different colors can form structures on which colored patterns are ``painted.'' We explore the complexity, in terms of the numbers of unique tile types…

It is known that any open necklace with beads of $t$ types in which the number of beads of each type is divisible by $k$, can be partitioned by at most $(k-1)t$ cuts into intervals that can be distributed into $k$ collections, each…

Wild knots--knots with infinite knotting behavior--have resisted traditional methods of knot classification, making them more of a curiosity in topology than a subject of sustained investigation. In this paper, we present a new way to…

We study the minimal crossing number $c(K_{1}\# K_{2})$ of composite knots $K_{1}\# K_{2}$, where $K_1$ and $K_2$ are prime, by relating it to the minimal crossing number of spatial graphs, in particular the $2n$-theta curve…

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…

We study the minimal complexity of tilings of a plane with a given tile set. We note that every tile set admits either no tiling or some tiling with O(n) Kolmogorov complexity of its n-by-n squares. We construct tile sets for which this…

We introduce the notion of slice depth of a 2-knot K, which is the minimal integer n such that K is n-slice. We give an upper bound for the slice depth of the n-twist spin of a classical knot which belongs to several specific classes,…

In areas as diverse as contemporary art, play structures, climbing equipment, and modular construction toys, we see the presence of building block-like polyhedral complexes, which are generalizations of the pieces in the game Tetris. We…

In this note, I describe a formalism for treating knots as geometric spaces, and make an application to a simple statistical mechanics computation. The motivation for this study is the natural visual symmetry of the knot, and I describe how…

We exhibit an algorithm to determine the bridge number of a hyperbolic knot in the 3-sphere. The proof uses adaptations of almost normal surface theory for compact surfaces with boundary in ideally triangulated knot exteriors.

A famous result of D. Walkup states that the only rectangles that may be tiled by the T-tetromino are those in which both sides are a multiple of four. In this paper we examine the rest of the rectangles, asking how many T-tetrominos may be…

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…