Related papers: On the complexity of 2-bridge link complements
We compute the maximal Thurston-Bennequin number for a Legendrian two-bridge knot or oriented two-bridge link in standard contact R^3, by showing that the upper bound given by the Kauffman polynomial is sharp. As an application, we present…
One measure of the complexity of a 3-manifold is its triangulation complexity: the minimal number of tetrahedra in a triangulation of it. A natural question is whether we can relate this quantity to its topology. We determine the…
How complex must two finite 2-complexes be to admit a common, but not finite common, covering? We obtain an almost answer: the minimum possible number of triangles in a pseudo-simplicial triangulation of each complex is 3, 4, or 5.
We define a monoid structure on the set of $k$-equal arrangements and use this structure to define limits of braid arrangements. We compute the cohomology of the associated limits of rational models of the arrangements complex complements.…
We present explicit geometric decompositions of the complement of tiling links, which are alternating links whose projection graphs are uniform tilings of the 2-sphere, the Euclidean plane or the hyperbolic plane. This requires generalizing…
We consider the polyhedral properties of two spanning tree problems with additional constraints. In the first problem, it is required to find a tree with a minimum sum of edge weights among all spanning trees with the number of leaves less…
Connected sum and trivalent vertex sum are natural operations on genus 2 spatial graphs and, as with knots, tunnel number behaves in interesting ways under these operations. We prove sharp Scharlemann-Schultens type bounds for the tunnel…
Knots and links which are closed 3-braids are a very special class. Like 2-bridge knots and links, they are simple enough to admit a complete classification. At the same time they are rich enough to serve as a source of examples on which,…
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…
For the double complex structure of grading-restricted vertex algebra cohomology defined in \cite{Huang}, we introduce a multiplication of elements of double complex spaces. We show that the orthogonality and bi-grading conditions applied…
For a closed orientable connected 3-manifold $M$, its complexity $\boldsymbol{T}(M)$ is defined to be the minimal number of tetrahedra in its triangulations. Under the assumption that $M$ is prime (but not necessarily atoroidal), we…
We investigate the tractability of a simple fusion of two fundamental structures on graphs, a spanning tree and a perfect matching. Specifically, we consider the following problem: given an edge-weighted graph, find a minimum-weight…
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.…
In 2007, Ando and Egawa proved a theorem which provides a lower bound on the number of contractible edges preserving $4$-connectedness in $4$-connected graphs. In this paper, we refine their bounds, especially for the $4$-connected plane…
We prove that the tunnel number of a satellite chain link with a number of components higher than or equal to twice the bridge number of the companion is as small as possible among links with the same number of components. We prove this…
Understanding ideal points in the character varieties of knot complements has led to a number of important invariants for 3-manifolds. Ohtsuki (1994) counted the ideal points for character varieties of 2-bridge knot complements, and he made…
It is well known that the minimum crossing number of an alternating link equals the number of crossings in any reduced alternating link diagram of the link. This remarkable result is an application of the Jones polynomial. In the case of…
We define the crosscap number of a 2-component link as the minimum of the first Betti numbers of connected, non-orientable surfaces bounding the link. We discuss some properties of the crosscap numbers of 2-component links.
We investigate Fox's trapezoidal conjecture for alternating links. We show that it holds for diagrammatic Murasugi sums of special alternating links, where all sums involved have length less than three (which includes diagrammatic…
Yokota suggested an optimistic limit method of the Kashaev invariants of hyperbolic knots and showed it determines the complex volumes of the knots. His method is very effective and gives almost combinatorial method of calculating the…