Ribbon plumbing and the problem of Gauss words (Q1322577)

The plane projection of a knot with only double points in codified by an oriented Gauss word and the problem is to find necessary and sufficient conditions for an oriented Gauss word to be attached to a knot. The authors give a new, more geometrical proof of the two conditions by \textit{C. H. Dowker} and \textit{M. B. Thistlethwaite} [Topology Appl. 16, 19- 31 (1983; Zbl 0516.57002)] and show that the main condition is actually a cohomological obstruction, i.e. it is equivalent to the vanishing of a certain cohomology class. There is a minor error with the signs of a formula quoted in the introduction for historical reasons. For the corrected formula check [Erratum, ibid., No. 2, 124 (1994; see the review below)].