Related papers: A polynomial upper bound on Reidemeister moves for…
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…
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…
Link equivalence up to isotopy in a 3-space is the problem that lies at the root of knot theory, and is important in 3-dimensional topology and geometry. We consider its restriction to alternating links, given by two alternating diagrams…
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…
Consider a robot that remembers only the starting position and walks along a knot once on a knot diagram, switching every undercrossing it meets until it returns to the starting position. We observe that the robot produces an ascending…
If a rectangular diagram represents the trivial knot, then it can be deformed into the trivial rectangular diagram with only four edges by a finite sequence of merge operations and exchange operations, without increasing the number of…
We consider arrow diagrams of links in $S^3$ and define $k$-moves on such diagrams, for any $k\in\mathbb N$. We study the equivalence classes of links in $S^3$ up to $k$-moves. For $k=2$, we show that any two knots are equivalent, whereas…
We suggest a categorification procedure for the SO(2N) one-variable specialization of the two-variable Kauffman polynomial. The construction has many similarities with the HOMFLYPT categorification: a planar graph formula for the polynomial…
We study petal diagrams of knots, which provide a method of describing knots in terms of permutations in a symmetric group $S_{2n+1}$. We define two classes of moves on such permutations, called trivial petal additions and crossing…
It is a natural question to ask whether two links are equivalent by the following moves -- parallel parts of a link are changed to k-times half-twisted parts and if they are, how many moves are needed to go from one link to the other. In…
We first prove that, infinitely many pairs of trivial knot diagrams that are transformed into each other by applying Reidemeister moves I and III are NOT transformed into each other by a sequence of the Reidemeister moves I that increase…
It is known that every surface-link can be presented by a marked graph diagram, and such a diagram presentation is unique up to moves called Yoshikawa moves. G. Kuperberg introduced a regular isotopy invariant, called the quantum A_2…
We prove that for some knot-like objects one can easily recognize non-equivalence w.r.t. all Reidemeister moves by studying some equivalence classes modulo only 2nd Reidemeister moves. There are applications to virtual knots, graph-links…
We examine the conjecture, due to Champanerkar, Kofman, and Purcell that $\text{vol}(K) < 2 \pi \log \det (K)$ for alternating hyperbolic links, where $\text{vol}(K) = \text{vol}(S^3\backslash K)$ is the hyperbolic volume and $\det(K)$ is…
A polynomial is presented that models a topological knot in a unique manner. It distinguishes all types of knots including the orientation and has a group theory interpretation. The topologies may be labeled via a number, which upon a base…
In this paper we study some aspects of knots and links in lens spaces. Namely, if we consider lens spaces as quotient of the unit ball $B^{3}$ with suitable identification of boundary points, then we can project the links on the equatorial…
For a knot diagram $K$, the classical knot group $\pi_1(K)$ is a free group modulo relations determined by Wirtinger-type relations on the classical crossings. The classical knot group is invariant under the Reidemeister moves. In this…
The tree spanner problem for a graph $G$ is as follows: For a given integer $k$, is there a spanning tree $T$ of $G$ (called a tree $k$-spanner) such that the distance in $T$ between every pair of vertices is at most $k$ times their…
We construct a 2-variable link polynomial, called $W_L$, for classical links by considering simultaneously the Kauffman state models for the Alexander and for the Jones polynomials. We conjecture that this polynomial is the product of two…
We consider the problem of classifying those graphs that arise as an undirected square of an oriented graph by generalising the notion of quasi-transitive directed graphs to mixed graphs. We fully classify those graphs of maximum degree…