Related papers: End-essential spanning surfaces for links in thick…

Checkerboard surfaces in alternating link complements are used frequently to determine information about the link. However, when many crossings are added to a single twist region of a link diagram, the geometry of the link complement…

In this paper, we apply Kauffman bracket skein algebras to develop a theory of skein adequate links in thickened surfaces. We show that any alternating link diagram on a surface is skein adequate. We apply our theory to establish the first…

We establish a characterization of alternating links in terms of definite spanning surfaces. We apply it to obtain a new proof of Tait's conjecture that reduced alternating diagrams of the same link have the same crossing number and writhe.…

We study a canonical spanning surface obtained from a knot or link diagram depending on a given Kauffman state, and give a sufficient condition for the surface to be essential. By using the essential surface, we can see the triviality and…

We prove a Kauffman-Murasugi-Thistlethwaite theorem for alternating links in thickened surfaces. It states that any reduced alternating diagram of a link in a thickened surface has minimal crossing number, and any two reduced alternating…

Let $T$ be a graph in a compact, orientable 3--manifold $M$ and let $\Gamma$ be a subgraph. $T$ can be placed in bridge position with respect to a Heegaard surface $H$. We show that if $H$ is what we call $(T,\Gamma)$-c-weakly reducible in…

In this paper, we study alternating links in thickened surfaces in terms of the lattices of integer flows on their Tait graphs. We use this approach to give a short proof of the first two generalised Tait conjectures. We also prove that the…

We use an extension of Gordon-Litherland pairing to thickened surfaces to give a topological characterization of alternating links in thickened surfaces. If $\Sigma$ is a closed oriented surface and $F$ is a compact unoriented surface in…

Traditionally, alternating links are studied with alternating diagrams on $S^2$ in $S^3$. In this paper, we consider links which are alternating on higher genus surfaces $S_g$ in $S_g \times I$. We define what it means for such a link to be…

We generalize a theorem of Finkelstein and Moriah and show that if a link $L$ has a $2n$-plat projection satisfying certain conditions, then its complement contains some closed essential surfaces. In most cases these surfaces remain…

We extend the flyping theorem to alternating links in thickened surfaces and alternating virtual links. The proof of the former result uses work of Boden--Karimi to adapt the author's geometric proof of Tait's 1898 flyping conjecture (first…

We prove that in the complement of a highly twisted link, all closed, essential, meridionally incompressible surfaces must have high genus. The genus bound is proportional to the number of crossings per twist region. A similar result holds…

We extend the Gordon-Litherland pairing to links in thickened surfaces, and use it to define signature, determinant, and nullity invariants for links that bound (unoriented) spanning surfaces. The invariants are seen to depend only on the…

We prove a prime decomposition theorem for string links in a thickened surface. Namely, we prove that any non-braid string link $\ell \subset \Sigma \times I$, where $\Sigma$ is a compact orientable (not necessarily closed) surface other…

Let $A$ be a finite commutative ring with unity $1 \neq 0.$ An ideal of $A$ is said to be essential if it has a non-zero intersection with every non-zero ideal of $A.$ The essential graph of $A$ is a simple undirected graph whose vertex set…

A classification of spanning surfaces for alternating links is provided up to genus, orientability, and a new invariant that we call aggregate slope. That is, given an alternating link, we determine all possible combinations of genus,…

Menasco proved that nontrivial links in the 3-sphere with connected prime alternating non-2-braid projections are hyperbolic. This was further extended to augmented alternating links wherein non-isotopic trivial components bounding disks…

Since the 1980s, it has been known that essential surfaces in alternating link complements can be isotoped to be transverse to the link diagram almost everywhere, with the exception of some well-understood intersections, and described…

Menasco showed that a non-split, prime, alternating link that is not a 2-braid is hyperbolic in $S^3$. We prove a similar result for links in closed thickened surfaces $S \times I$. We define a link to be fully alternating if it has an…

We prove that if $L$ is a non-trivial alternating link embedded (without crossings) in a closed surface $F\subset S^3$, then $F$ has a compressing disk whose boundary intersects $L$ in no more than two points. Moreover, whenever the surface…