Related papers: Rigid and shaky hard link diagrams

We present three "hard" diagrams of the unknot. They require (at least) three extra crossings before they can be simplified to the trivial unknot diagram via Reidemeister moves in $\mathbb{S}^2$. Both examples are constructed by applying…

Deformations of knots and links in ambient space can be studied combinatorially on their diagrams via local modifications called Reidemeister moves. While it is well-known that, in order to move between equivalent diagrams with Reidemeister…

Using unknotting number, we introduce a link diagram invariant of Hass and Nowik type, which changes at most by 2 under a Reidemeister move. As an application, we show that a certain infinite sequence of diagrams of the trivial…

We prove that certain problems naturally arising in knot theory are NP--hard or NP--complete. These are the problems of obtaining one diagram from another one of a link in a bounded number of Reidemeister moves, determining whether a link…

In the previous paper, we considered a link diagram invariant of Hass and Nowik type using regular smoothing and unknotting number, to estimate the number of Reidemeister moves needed for unlinking. In this paper, we introduce a new link…

We prove that deciding if a diagram of the unknot can be untangled using at most $k$ Riedemeister moves (where $k$ is part of the input) is NP-hard. We also prove that several natural questions regarding links in the $3$-sphere are NP-hard,…

In this paper a classification of Reidemeister moves, which is the most refined, is introduced. In particular, this classification distinguishes some $\Omega_3$-moves that only differ in how the three strands that are involved in the move…

We prove that any diagram of the unknot with c crossings may be reduced to the trivial diagram using at most (236 c)^{11} Reidemeister moves. Moreover, every diagram in this sequence has at most (7 c)^2 crossings. We also prove a similar…

The theory of welded and extended welded knots is a generalization of classical knot theory. Welded (resp. extended welded) knot diagrams include virtual crossings (resp. virtual crossings and wen marks) and are equivalent under an extended…

We show that any two diagrams of the same knot or link are connected by a sequence of Reidemeister moves which are sorted by type.

In the classical knot theory there is a well-known notion of descending diagram. From an arbitrary diagram one can easily obtain, by some crossing changes, a descending diagram which is a diagram of the unknot or unlink. In this paper the…

In this paper we introduce a representation of knots and links called a cube diagram. We show that a property of a cube diagram is a link invariant if and only if the property is invariant under two types of cube diagram operations. A knot…

In this paper, we study knot diagrams for which the underlying graph has treewidth two. We give a linear time algorithm for the following problem: given a knot diagram of treewidth two, does it represent the unknot? We also show that for a…

In this paper, a link diagram is said to be minimal if no Reidemeister move I or II can be applied to it to reduce the number of crossings. We show that for an arbitrary diagram D of a link without a trivial split component, a minimal…

We construct a new order 1 invariant for knot diagrams. We use it to determine the minimal number of Reidemeister moves needed to pass between certain pairs of knot diagrams.

Both classical and virtual knots arise as formal Gauss diagrams modulo some abstract moves corresponding to Reidemeister moves. If we forget about both over/under crossings structure and writhe numbers of knots modulo the same Reidemeister…

In this article we discuss applications of neural networks to recognising knots and, in particular, to the unknotting problem. One of motivations for this study is to understand how neural networks work on the example of a problem for which…

Frequently, knots are enumerated by their crossing number. However, the number of knots with crossing number $c$ grows exponentially with $c$, and to date computer-assisted proofs can only classify diagrams up to around twenty crossings.…

For each link type $K$ in the 3-sphere, we show that there is a polynomial $p_K$ such that any two diagrams of $K$ with $c_1$ and $c_2$ crossings differ by at most $p_K(c_1) + p_K(c_2)$ Reidemeister moves. As a consequence, the problem of…

A {\it stuck knot} is a knot diagram containing designated crossings, called {\it stuck crossings}, whose incident strands are required to remain locally non-separable. These rigidity constraints restrict the allowable ambient isotopies and…