Related papers: The bridge number of arborescent links with many t…
We prove the meridional rank conjecture for twisted links and arborescent links associated to bipartite trees with even weights. These links are substantial generalizations of pretzels and two-bridge links, respectively. Lower bounds on…
We prove that links with meridional rank 3 whose 2-fold branched covers are graph manifolds are 3-bridge links. This gives a partial answer to a question by S. Cappell and J. Shaneson on the relation between the bridge numbers and…
We prove that every connected graph with $s$ vertices of degree~1 and 3 and $t$ vertices of degree at least~4 has a spanning tree with at least ${1\over 3}t +{1\over 4}s+{3\over 2}$ leaves. We present infinite series of graphs showing that…
We prove, that every connected graph with $s$ vertices of degree 3 and $t$ vertices of degree at least~4 has a spanning tree with at least ${2\over 5}t +{1\over 5}s+\alpha$ leaves, where $\alpha \ge {8\over 5}$. Moreover, $\alpha \ge 2$ for…
We prove that every connected graph with $s$ vertices of degree not 2 has a spanning tree with at least ${1\over 4}(s-2)+2$ leaves. Let $G$ be a be a connected graph of girth $g$ with $v>1$ vertices. Let maximal chain of successively…
We define the {\it Wirtinger number} of a link, an invariant closely related to the meridional rank. The Wirtinger number is the minimum number of generators of the fundamental group of the link complement over all meridional presentations…
To each link $L$ in $S^3$ we associate a collection of certain labelled directed trees, called width trees. We interpret some classical and new topological link invariants in terms of these width trees and show how the geometric structure…
The Meridional Rank Conjecture asks whether the bridge number of a knot in $S^3$ is equal to the minimal number of meridians needed to generate the fundamental group of its complement. In this paper we investigate the analogous conjecture…
The paper provides bounds for the ropelength of a link in terms of the crossing numbers of its split components. As in earlier papers, the bounds grow with the square of the crossing number; however, the constant involved is a substantial…
A branch vertex in a tree is a vertex of degree at least three. We prove that, for all $s\geq 1$, every connected graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $(\frac{1}{s+3}+o(1))n$ contains a spanning tree having at most $s$ branch…
This paper provides a relationship between a geometric structure of a suspended tree and the number of link components of the associated link diagram.
A tree is called k-ended tree if it has at most k leaves, where a leaf is a vertex of degree one. In this paper we prove that every 3-regular connected graph with n vertices such that n is greater than 8 has spanning sub tree with at most…
We prove for a large class of knots that the meridional rank coincides with the bridge number. This class contains all knots whose exterior is a graph manifold. This gives a partial answer to a question of S. Cappell and J. Shaneson, see…
We give a proof for sharp estimate for the number of spanning trees using linear algebra and generalize this bound to multigraphs. In addition, we show that this bound is tight for complete graphs. In addition, we give estimates for number…
It is proved that the rectilinear crossing number of every graph with bounded tree-width and bounded degree is linear in the number of vertices. **** This paper has been withdrawn by the author. **** The results have been superseeded by the…
The Rooted Maximum Leaf Outbranching problem consists in finding a spanning directed tree rooted at some prescribed vertex of a digraph with the maximum number of leaves. Its parameterized version asks if there exists such a tree with at…
The {\sc Directed Maximum Leaf Out-Branching} problem is to find an out-branching (i.e. a rooted oriented spanning tree) in a given digraph with the maximum number of leaves. In this paper, we obtain two combinatorial results on the number…
Given any link $L\subseteq S^3$, we show that it is possible to embed an unknot $U$ in its complement so that the link $L\cup U$ satisfies the Meridional Rank Conjecture (MRC). The bridge numbers in our construction fit into the equality…
Given a link $L\subset S^3$, a representation $\pi_1(S^3-L)\to{\rm SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ is {\it trace-free} if it sends each meridian to an element with trace zero. We present a method for completely determining trace-free ${\rm…
Graphs with bounded treewidth and bounded maximum degree are known to have tree-partitions of bounded width. What can be said if the bounded treewidth assumption is strengthened to bounded pathwidth? We prove that every graph with bounded…