The structure of a minimal \(n\)-chart with two crossings. II. Neighbourhoods of \(\Gamma _1\cup \Gamma _{n-1}\) (Q2317528)

Part I of this paper appeared in [J. Knot Theory Ramifications 27, No. 14, Article ID 1850078, 37 p. (2018; Zbl 1408.57025)]. Part II is the subject of the present paper. Both parts (in the PL or the smooth category) investigate the structure of minimal \(n\)-charts (or braids of degree \(n\)) with two crossings. A chart \(\Gamma\) is an oriented graph in a disk \(D^2\) with three kinds of vertices called black vertices, crossings and white vertices. The numbers of white vertices, resp., free edges, and crossings, determine different types of complexity of the chart \(\Gamma\) defining the notion of a minimal chart. From a chart we can construct a closed surface so the purpose of these investigations is a classification of surface links by using charts. For \(\Gamma \subset D^2\) and \(D \subset D^2\) a disk we have a pair \((\Gamma \cap D,D)\) called a tangle provided \(\partial D\) does not contain vertices, an edge of \(\Gamma\) intersects \(\partial D\) transversally and \(\Gamma \cap D \neq \emptyset\). Using this the authors split a minimal chart with two crossings into two kind of tangles: a net-tangle and the other one called IO-tangle. In fact net-tangles were investigated in Part I while IO-tangles are treated in Part II. Their properties are given within three theorems. After this indices are defined for simple IO-tangles and N-tangles. At the end of the paper a normal form for 2-crossing minimal charts is defined.