Related papers: A new unknotting operation for classical and welde…
Introducing a way to modify knots using $n$-trivial rational tangles, we show that knots with given values of Vassiliev invariants of bounded degree can have arbitrary unknotting number (extending a recent result of Ohyama, Taniyama and…
We define new notions of groups of virtual and welded knots (or links) and we study their relations with other invariants, in particular the Kauffman group of a virtual knot.
This paper gives a diagrammatic way to perform a generalized shift move on a crown diagram of a smooth 4-manifold. Applications include a simplified proof that if two crown diagrams are related by a generalized shift move, then they are…
This paper is expository and is accessible to students. We define simple invariants of knots or links (linking number, Arf-Casson invariants and Alexander-Conway polynomials) motivated by interesting results whose statements are accessible…
This article is solicited by C.\ Adams for a special issue of {\it Chaos, Solitons and Fractals\/} devoted to knot theory and its applications. We present some recent results about Dehn surgeries on arborescent knots and links.
A $2k$-move is a local deformation adding or removing $2k$ half-twists. We show that if two virtual knots are related by a finite sequence of $2k$-moves, then their $n$-writhes are congruent modulo $k$ for any nonzero integer $n$, and their…
We enhance the quandle counting invariants of oriented classical and virtual knots and links using a construction similar to quandle modules but inspired by symplectic quandle operations rather than Alexander quandle operations. Given a…
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…
The algebraic unknotting number u_a(K) of a knot K was introduced by Hitoshi Murakami. It equals the minimal number of crossing changes needed to turn K into an Alexander polynomial one knot. In a previous paper the authors used the…
F-polynomials for virtual knots were defined by Kaur, Prabhakar and Vesnin in 2018 using flat virtual knot invariants. These polynomials naturally generalize Kauffman's affine index polynomial and use smoothing in classical crossing of a…
Given a generic rational curve $C$ in the group of Euclidean displacements we construct a linkage such that the constrained motion of one of the links is exactly $C$. Our construction is based on the factorization of polynomials over dual…
The Alexander theorem (1923) and the Markov theorem (1936) are two classical results in knot theory that show respectively that every link is the closure of a braid and that braids that have the same closure are related by a finite number…
Three new knot invariants are defined using cocycles of the generalized quandle homology theory that was proposed by Andruskiewitsch and Gra\~na. We specialize that theory to the case when there is a group action on the coefficients. First,…
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…
This thesis develops some general calculational techniques for finding the orders of knots in the topological concordance group C. The techniques currently available in the literature are either too theoretical, applying to only a small…
We extend the quandle cocycle invariant to oriented singular knots and links using algebraic structures called \emph{oriented singquandles} and assigning weight functions at both regular and singular crossings. This invariant coincides with…
This paper contains linear systems of equations which can distinguish knots without knot invariants. Let $M_n$ be the topological moduli space of all n-component string links and such that a fixed projection into the plane is an immersion.…
We use planar 4-valent graphs and a graphical calculus involving such graphs to construct an invariant for balanced-oriented, knotted 4-valent graphs. Our invariant is an extension of the $sl(n)$ polynomial for classical knots and links. We…
2-dimensional knots and links are studied in the article. The notion of parity is introduced via techniques similar to the ones used by the second named author in 1-dimensional case. By using parity new invariants are constructed and known…
We consider a relation between two kinds of unknotting numbers defined by using a band surgery on unoriented knots; the band-unknotting number and H(2)-unknotting number, which we may characterize in terms of the first Betti number of…