Upper bounds for ropelength as a function of crossing number. (Q1421981)

If \(L\) denotes a link type, the ``ropelength'' of \(L\), \(Rop(L)\), is the minimum (over representatives of \(L\)), of the ratio of the length of \(L\) to the thickness of \(L\) (the radius of the largest tubular neighborhood of \(L\)). If L is non-split, then the authors prove \[ Rop(L) \leq 1.64c(L)^{2}+7.69c(L)+6.74. \] If \(c(L) \leq 27,700\) and no further conditions are imposed then this bound is better than the previous bound of \textit{Y. Diao}, \textit{C. Ernst} and \textit{X. Yu} [Hamiltonian knot projections and lengths of thick knots, Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte Technical Report Series Preprint 2002-24 (2002)] which is however \(O(c(L)^{3/2})\).