Related papers: Diagrammatic unknotting of knots and links in the …

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…

Classical knot theory deals with {\em diagrams} and {\em invariants}. By means of horizontal {\em trisecants}, we construct a new theory of classical braids with invariants valued in {\em pictures}. These pictures are closely related to…

We study symmetric crossing change operations for strongly invertible knots. Our main theorem is that the most natural notion of equivariant unknotting number is not additive under connected sum, in contrast with the longstanding conjecture…

We show that for any nontrivial knot $K$ and any natural number $n$ there is a diagram $D$ of $K$ such that the unknotting number of $D$ is greater than or equal to $n$. It is well known that twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than…

We show that if a classical knot diagram satisfies a certain combinatorial condition then it is minimal with respect to the number of classical crossings. This statement is proved by using the Kauffman bracket and the construction of atoms…

We define a decomposition of link projections whose pieces we call atoroidal graphs. We describe a surgery operation on these graphs and show that all atoroidal graphs can be generated by performing surgery repeatedly on a family of well…

Twisted links are a generalization of virtual links. As virtual links correspond to abstract links on orientable surfaces, twisted links correspond to abstract links on (possibly non-orientable) surfaces. In this paper, we introduce the…

Physical knots and links are one-dimensional submanifolds of R^3 with fixed length and thickness. We show that isotopy classes in this category can differ from those of classical knot and link theory. In particular we exhibit a Gordian…

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…

For classical knots, there is a concept of (semi)meander diagrams; in this short note we generalize this concept to virtual knots and prove that the classes of meander and semimeander diagrams are universal (this was known for classical…

We give a brief survey of some known results on intrinsically linked or knotted graphs.

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…

We show that a small tree-decomposition of a knot diagram induces a small sphere-decomposition of the corresponding knot. This, in turn, implies that the knot admits a small essential planar meridional surface or a small bridge sphere. We…

In recent years, there have been intense research efforts to develop efficient methods for probabilistic inference in probabilistic influence diagrams or belief networks. Many people have concluded that the best methods are those based on…

In this article, we define an independence system for a classical knot diagram and prove that the independence system is a knot invariant for alternating knots. We also discuss the exchange property for minimal unknotting sets. Finally, we…

The unknotting number $u$ and the genus $g$ of braid positive knots are equal, as shown by Rudolph. We prove the stronger statement that any positive braid diagram of a genus $g$ knot contains $g$ crossings, such that changing them produces…

In a recent work "Arc-presentation of links: Monotonic simplification" Ivan Dynnikov showed that each rectangular diagram of the unknot, composite link, or split link can be monotonically simplified into a trivial, composite, or split…

A triple crossing is a crossing in a projection of a knot or link that has three strands of the knot passing straight through it. A triple crossing projection is a projection such that all of the crossings are triple crossings. We prove…

An oriented link projection is the image of a generic immersion of oriented circles into the 2-sphere. The circle arrangement of a link projection is a disjoint union of unoriented circles on the 2-sphere obtained by orientation-incoherent…

We define a new kind of Gauss diagrams to describe knots in the solid torus with projections in the annulus. We see that it provides an efficient tool for showing that a knot diagram can be fully recovered from its decorated Gauss diagram,…