Related papers: New Upper Bounds for Stick Numbers

We study Kauffman's model of folded ribbon knots: knots made of a thin strip of paper folded flat in the plane. The folded ribbonlength is the length to width ratio of such a folded ribbon knot. The folded ribbon knot is also a framed knot,…

We present new computations of approximately length-minimizing polygons with fixed thickness. These curves model the centerlines of "tight" knotted tubes with minimal length and fixed circular cross-section. Our curves approximately…

The non-orientable 4-genus of a knot in the 3-sphere is defined as the smallest first Betti number of any non-orientable surface smoothly and properly embedded in the 4-ball, with boundary the given knot. We compute the non-orientable…

This paper is devoted to the study of lower and upper bounds for the number of vertices of the polytope of $n\times n\times n$ stochastic tensors (i.e., triply stochastic arrays of dimension $n$). By using known results on polytopes (i.e.,…

Pseudoline arrangements are fundamental objects in discrete and computational geometry, and different works have tackled the problem of improving the known bounds on the number of simple arrangements of $n$ pseudolines over the past…

We use the Chebyshev knot diagram model of Koseleff and Pecker in order to introduce a random knot diagram model by assigning the crossings to be positive or negative uniformly at random. We give a formula for the probability of choosing a…

In this paper we present a systematic method to generate prime knot and prime link minimal triple-point projections, and then classify all classical prime knots and prime links with triple-crossing number at most four. We also extend the…

Let $K$ be a prime knot in $S^3$ and $G(K)=\pi_1(S^3-K)$ the knot group. We write $K_1 \geq K_2$ if there exists a surjective homomorphism from $G(K_1)$ onto $G(K_2)$. In this paper, we determine this partial order on the set of prime knots…

Given a knot complement X and its p-fold cyclic cover X_p, we identify twisted polynomials associated to 1-dimensional linear representations of the fundamental group of X_p with twisted polynomials associated to related p-dimensional…

A lattice-based model for continuum percolation is applied to the case of randomly located, partially aligned sticks with unequal lengths in 2D which are allowed to cross each other. Results are obtained for the critical number of sticks…

We develop purely algebraic methods for proving that a knot is prime. Our approach uses the Heegaard Floer polynomial in conjunction with classical knot-theoretic methods: cyclic, dihedral, and metacyclic covering spaces. The theory of…

Given a diagram $D$ of a knot $K$, we consider the number $c(D)$ of crossings and the number $b(D)$ of overpasses of $D$. We show that, if $D$ is a diagram of a nontrivial knot $K$ whose number $c(D)$ of crossings is minimal, then…

Region crossing change for a knot or a proper link is an unknotting operation. In this paper, we provide a sharp upper bound on the region unknotting number for a large class of torus knots and proper links. Also, we discuss conditions on…

Every classical or virtual knot is equivalent to the unknot via a sequence of extended Reidemeister moves and the so-called forbidden moves. The minimum number of forbidden moves necessary to unknot a given knot is an invariant we call the…

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…

A virtual link may be defined as an equivalence class of diagrams, or alternatively as a stable equivalence class of links in thickened surfaces. We prove that a minimal crossing virtual link diagram has minimal genus across representatives…

We study the maximal number of triangulations that a planar set of $n$ points can have, and show that it is at most $30^n$. This new bound is achieved by a careful optimization of the charging scheme of Sharir and Welzl (2006), which has…

We prove that if an alternating knot has unknotting number one, then there exists an unknotting crossing in any alternating diagram. This is done by showing that the obstruction to unknotting number one developed by Greene in his work on…

Using the techniques on annulus twists, we observe that $6_3$ has infinitely many non-characterizing slopes, which affirmatively answers a question by Baker and Motegi. Furthermore, we prove that the knots $6_2$, $6_3$, $7_6$, $7_7$, $8_1$,…

We give three algorithms to determine the crosscap number of a knot in the 3-sphere using $0$-efficient triangulations and normal surface theory. Our algorithms are shown to be correct for a larger class of complements of knots in closed…