Simple ribbon moves for links (Q470082)

A new local move on links, called simple ribbon move, is introduced. The authors also define a complexity of links, called the \(h\)-complexity, which agrees with the genus in the case of knots. They prove that a simple ribbon move never reduces the \(h\)-complexity. In particular, if a link \(L\) is obtained from a non-trivial link \(l\) by such a move, then \(L\) is non-trivial. We now describe the ribbon move and the \(h\)-complexity. Let \(l\) be a link and \(H\) a three-ball such that \(l\cap H= l\cap \partial H\) consists of several disjoint arcs \(\beta_i\), \(i=1, \dots, n\). Let \(B_i\) be \(n\) bands included in \(H\), such that \(B_i \cap \partial H = \partial B_i \cap \partial H = \beta_i\). Let \(\pi\) be a permutation of \(1, \dots n\). Suppose that any intersection \(B_i\cap B_j\) is empty except if \(j=\pi (i)\) or \(\pi (j)=i\), cases in which the intersection is of ribbon type, and the arc \(\alpha_i=B_i \cap B_{\pi (i)}\) is a proper arc of \(B_i\) and it is included in the interior of \(B_{\pi (i)}\). Moreover, \(\alpha_i\) separates \(\alpha_{\pi^{-1}(i)}\) from \(B_i\cap \partial H\) in \(B_i\). Define the tangle \({\mathcal T}= \bigcup_i (\partial B_i \setminus \text{int }\beta_i)\) (the definition of the tangle in the paper is longer but probably more accurate for working with). Then \(L=(l \setminus \cup_i \beta_i)\cup {\mathcal T}\) is said to be obtained from \(l\) by a \(SR^{+}\)-move (a simple ribbon move). Finally, for a surface \(F\) let \(h=1-(\chi +n)/2\), where \(\chi\) is the Euler characteristic of \(F\) and \(n\) is its number of boundary components. (Note that \(h(F)=1-c+g\) where \(c\) is the number of connected components of \(F\) and \(g\) is its genus, and in particular \(h(F)=g(F)\) if \(F\) is connected). The \(h\)-complexity of a link is then the minimal \(h(F)\) for any Seifert surface of \(L\) (caution: in this paper Seifert surfaces are not necessarily connected).